Chapter 26 - The Counter-Strike
The silence in Conference Room B was thick enough to suffocate a shark. Patrick looked down at his mother’s sprawling, dramatic handwriting on the legal brief—the exact same handwriting that used to draft chore lists, bill invoices, and restriction notices when he was a teenager working night shifts to pay for his own books.
Even at the absolute end of her rope, Eleanor Vance was still trying to manipulate the system using him as her primary leverage.
Patrick slowly leaned back in his chair, a faint, cold smile touching the corners of his lips.
"Arthur," Patrick began, his voice completely steady, carrying the calm authority of a seasoned litigator. "Before we discuss corporate liability or settlement payouts, I suggest you review the asset acquisition audit trail attached to the rear of that portfolio file."
Arthur Sterling frowned, picking up a pen to flip through the dense stack of financial documents until he reached the final appendix.
"What am I looking at?" Arthur asked.
"You're looking at the exact date and timestamp of when 424 Maplewood Drive was officially listed as a distressed asset," Patrick explained smoothly. "It was placed on the open market by the First National Bank of New Jersey following a three-year mortgage default. Vanguard & Sterling’s automated real estate acquisition algorithm purchased it as part of a blind pool of four hundred properties. At no point did I access, review, or authorize that specific acquisition."
"Your mother claims otherwise," one of the junior partners chimed in nervously. "She claims you orchestrated it."
"My mother couldn't balance a checkbook if her life depended on it—which, as it turns out, it doesn't," Patrick replied sharply, his eyes flashing with ice. "Furthermore, if you check the ownership history of that house prior to the bank foreclosure, you will find that the mortgage was defaulted not because of corporate predatory lending, but because Robert Vance—my father—liquidated the family's remaining capital to cover private debts and reckless online speculations."
Patrick leaned forward, resting his forearms on the mahogany table, locking eyes with Arthur Sterling.
"If Vanguard caves to this extortion attempt," Patrick continued, his voice dropping into a chillingly persuasive register, "you validate a fraudulent claim from a bankrupt litigant with zero legal standing. More importantly, you signal to the market that our automated portfolio acquisitions are vulnerable to emotional blackmail. However—if you allow me twenty-four hours, I will personally dismantle their entire claim, expose their financial fraud, and ensure that any attempt to bring this to the press is met with an immediate countersuit for defamation and extortion."
Arthur Sterling stared at Patrick for a long, agonizing moment. The old man’s eyes searched Patrick’s face for any sign of weakness, hesitation, or lingering familial loyalty.
Instead, he found only absolute, unbreakable steel.
May you like
A slow, appreciative grin spread across Arthur Sterling’s weathered face. He closed the manila folder and slid it back across the table toward Patrick.
"You have twenty-four hours, Vance," Arthur said quietly. "Destroy them. And make sure they never darken our doors again."
