Chapter 3 - The Confession
My hands instinctively dropped to cover my pregnant belly, my knuckles turning white as I pressed my arms against my stomach. "You think threatening a pregnant woman in her own home will work, Damian? Do you have any idea what my legal team will do to you tomorrow morning?"
Damian let out a deep, echoing laugh—a sound so bitter and dismissive that it sent a shiver straight down my spine.
"Your legal team?" he asked, stepping even closer until he was hovering over me. "Victoria, your legal team answers to the executive board. And as of four o'clock this afternoon, five of the seven board seats have agreed to accept my restructuring proposal. Once these emergency power-of-attorney documents are signed, the transfer will be completely legal, executed under the guise of your 'incapacitation due to severe pregnancy complications.'"
Serena walked up behind him, resting her chin lightly against his shoulder as she looked at me with pure venom. "You really believed he loved you, didn't you? You really thought a man like Damian would settle for being the quiet house-husband to a workaholic tech heiress?"
The words cut through me, but the emotional shock was rapidly being overridden by a cold, sharp survival instinct.
"You've been stealing from the offshore accounts," I said, keeping my voice steady, forcing myself to maintain eye contact with both of them. "The server integration invoices. It was you."
"Of course it was him, you idiot," Serena sneered. "We've been transferring three hundred thousand dollars a week into our Zurich holding account for over fourteen months. Your father left everything to you—the estate, the patents, the voting control—while giving me a paltry two-million-dollar annuity. Did you really think I was going to sit back and let Arthur's spoiled little daughter enjoy all the wealth while I lived on crumbs?"
"You seduced my fiancé to get to my father's money?" I asked, looking directly at Serena.
"Seduced?" Damian chuckled, reaching back to slide his arm around Serena’s waist, pulling her flush against his side right in front of me. "Serena and I were together six months before I ever met you at the technology summit in San Francisco, Victoria. Meeting you was an assignment. Courting you was an investment. And marrying you was supposed to be the final payout."
He turned back to look at me, his eyes narrowing into dark slits.
"Your father was a fool, and you inherit his ridiculous sentimentality," Damian spat. "You thought you were building a legacy for those twins. But after you sign these papers tonight, you are going to check into a private psychiatric clinic in New Mexico to 'recover' from your sudden breakdown. Serena and I will raise your children with your money, and you will never set foot inside Sterling Biometrics again."
They stood there, wrapped in each other's arms, looking down at me as if I were already a ghost.
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They believed they had backed a helpless, terrified woman into a corner. They believed I was trapped, powerless, and ready to break under the pressure of their grand betrayal.
They had no idea that downstairs in the grand hall, two hundred of the most influential people in the state—including the District Attorney, three federal judges, the Chief of Police, and sixty major shareholders—were standing in dead, horrified silence, watching every frame of their confession broadcast across four massive, high-definition screens.
