Chapter 6 - Desperate Moves
The press turned their cameras instantly toward Margaret. The flashing lights were blinding.
"Security, please escort Mrs. Blackwood out," Ethan said into his microphone, his voice cutting through the noise like an iron blade. "She is no longer permitted on corporate property."
"Ethan, look at what she’s doing to us!" Margaret wailed as two tall security officers clamped firmly onto her arms. "I am your mother! She is destroying our family name!"
"You destroyed it yourself the moment you laughed in that church," Ethan replied without an ounce of sympathy.
As Margaret was marched out of the room screaming hysterically, the press conference concluded. But I knew this was far from over. A wounded beast with a taste for luxury doesn't go down without a fight.
By late afternoon, news broke that Olivia had fled to her penthouse, while Margaret had retreated to the family's legacy estate in Upstate New York.
Ethan and I sat in the executive office on the 40th floor. The sun was setting over the city skyline, casting long golden light across the glass desk.
"My legal team just checked the offshore accounts," Ethan said, sliding a tablet across to me. "Margaret attempted to transfer eight million dollars out of the operational liquidity fund at 4:00 AM this morning—just before the markets opened."
"Did the bank block it?" I asked.
"Blocked and frozen," Ethan confirmed. "She's desperate, Clara. She has debts to high-yield lenders that were supposed to be covered by the merger she planned for Blackwood Medical. Without her monthly stipend, those lenders are going to come knocking on her door."
My phone buzzed on the desk. It was an unknown private number.
I answered and put it on speakerphone.
"Clara..." Olivia’s voice sounded ragged, slurred, and erratic over the static connection. "You think you won? You think you can just take everything and walk away?"
May you like
"Olivia," I said calmly. "Where are you?"
"I’m at the summer house," Olivia sobbed, switching instantly from anger to desperation. "Mom locked herself in the study with a bottle of pills. She says if you don't drop the lawsuits and restore her accounts by midnight... she’s going to end it all. And it will be on your head."
