Chapter 9 - The Total Collapse
I stood three feet away from Vanessa, looking down at her with absolute, unyielding coldness.
“You called my mother an old, useless burden, Vanessa,” I said into the microphone, my voice echoing over the silent ballroom. “You poisoned her medication. You tried to burn her with boiling soup. And you framed a devoted mother who risked her own body to protect her.”
Vanessa fell to her knees on the stage, the heavy emerald silk of her gown pooling around her.
“Adrienne... please!” she sobbed hysterically, reaching out to clutch the hem of my trousers. “Please! I was desperate! I did it for us! My father’s company was dying! We needed the money!”
“You didn't do it for us, Vanessa,” I said, stepping back so her hand fell onto the wooden stage floor. “You did it because you’re a monster.”
I reached into my tuxedo pocket, pulled out the six-carat diamond ring she had left on my nightstand earlier, and tossed it onto the stage floor in front of her.
“The wedding is off,” I announced clearly. “And as of nine o'clock tonight, Cross Technologies has formally executed legal seizure orders against Sterling Development Group for corporate fraud and debt default.”
Richard Sterling gasped, clutching his chest as he sank into a chair near the stage. “No... no! Adrienne, please! That’s my life’s work!”
“Your life’s work was built on stolen credit and criminal deceit, Richard,” Arthur Pendelton stepped forward from the crowd, holding a thick stack of legal warrants. “And as of ten minutes ago, the King County Sheriff’s Department has issued formal arrest warrants for both you and your daughter.”
The heavy oak doors of the country club ballroom swung open.
Six uniformed officers from the Austin Police Department and three detectives stepped into the room, their handcuffs gleaming under the chandeliers.
The crowd parted like the Red Sea as the officers marched straight up to the stage.
“Vanessa Sterling,” the lead detective announced clearly. “You are under arrest for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, poisoning of a prescription drug, and felony extortion.”
Two officers stepped onto the stage, pulling Vanessa to her feet.
“No! Get your hands off me!” Vanessa screamed, flailing wildly as the steel handcuffs snapped around her wrists. “Adrienne! Tell them to stop! Adrienne!”
Camera flashes exploded across the room like lightning as news crews captured every second of Vanessa Sterling being led away in handcuffs, her green designer dress torn, her hair ruined, her face covered in smeared makeup and desperate tears.
Two more officers approached Richard Sterling, informing him of his immediate indictment for corporate fraud and loan racketeering.
The great Sterling family—the proud, arrogant real estate dynasty that had attempted to prey upon my family—had been completely destroyed in less than twenty minutes.
I handed the microphone back to the frozen venue manager, adjusted my tuxedo cuffs, and walked off the stage.
May you like
As I passed through the grand ballroom doors into the cool Texas night air, I took a deep, clean breath.
The poison was gone.
