Chapter 5 - Shadows in the Boardroom
Three days later, the corporate headquarters of Sterling Logistics in downtown Boston was a madhouse.
Camera crews crowded the lobby, flashing lights reflecting off the polished brass security gates. Inside the executive boardroom on the forty-second floor, the atmosphere was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Five members of the board of directors sat around the mahogany conference table. At the head of the table sat Julian, his fingers laced together on the desk. To his right, sitting quietly in a oversized leather chair, was Lily, drawing pictures of horses with a box of Crayola markers Elena had bought her.
The door opened, and Marcus walked in, followed by two federal agents in dark suits.
Between them walked Margaret Sterling.
She looked small. Stripped of her pearls, her designer clothes, and her aristocratic armor, she looked like an ordinary, bitter old woman facing the wreckage of her own design.
She stopped near the center of the room, her eyes darting around the table before finally landing on Julian.
“You’re really doing this,” Margaret whispered, her voice cracking with disbelief. “You’re sending your own mother to federal prison over a bastard child?”
Julian stood up slowly. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't yell. He simply looked at her with a profound, chilling indifference.
“You weren't my mother, Margaret,” Julian said calmly. “You were a warden. And the prison sentence you’re facing isn't because of Lily. It’s because you believed your last name made you immune to the laws of humanity.”
He gestured to the federal agents. “Take her away.”
As the handcuffs clicked around Margaret’s wrists, she let out a bitter, cracking laugh that sent a shiver through everyone in the room.
“You think you’ve won, Julian?” she snarled as she was being pulled toward the door. “You think Elena came back for love? Check the trust documents! She didn't just come back for her daughter—she came back to claim fifty percent of the entire Sterling empire!”
The heavy oak boardroom door slammed shut, cutting off her voice.
Silence descended on the room.
May you like
Julian slowly turned his head to look at Elena, who was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Boston harbor.
---
