Chapter 7 - Broken Alliances
"What do you mean she doesn't have it?" Arthur hissed, struggling against the marshals' grip before being forcefully dragged out into the executive elevator lobby.
The heavy glass doors closed, leaving the boardroom in stunned, reverent silence.
Alexander looked around the table at the remaining board members. "The no-confidence vote is officially dismissed. Any member of this board who held private communications with Arthur Sterling over the last forty-eight hours has until noon to submit their formal resignation. If your resignation is not on my desk by twelve o'clock, forensic auditors will seize your personal assets for corporate complicity."
Within thirty seconds, four compromised directors gathered their briefcases in sheer panic and hurried out of the room.
Alexander turned down to Clara, his expression softening completely. "You handled that better than most CEOs on Wall Street."
"My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to pass out," Clara admitted with a small, breathless laugh, letting her shoulders drop for the first time that morning.
"You're Eleanor's daughter," Alexander said, squeezing her shoulder gently. "Steel runs in your blood."
Suddenly, Marcus appeared at the boardroom entrance, gesturing urgently for Alexander. "Boss. We have a major problem in the holding facility."
Alexander's demeanor instantly hardened again. "What happened?"
"Victoria," Marcus said grimly as Alexander and Clara joined him in the private hallway. "She requested to speak under immunity terms, but ten minutes ago, someone slipped cyanide into her breakfast tray inside the federal holding cell."
Clara gasped, covering her mouth. "Is she...?"
"She survived because she only took half a bite, but she's in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital under heavy police guard," Marcus explained rapidly. "The hit came from inside the Department of Corrections. Arthur didn't act alone twelve years ago. There’s a third syndicate backing the Sterling family."
Alexander's fists clenched so hard his tendons stood out against his skin. "The Syndicate of Seven. The offshore banking cartel that Eleanor refused to sell our logistics patents to."
"They know Aria is alive," Marcus added, his voice low and deadly serious. "And if Victoria dies before giving a sworn deposition, we lose the paper trail linking the cartel to the original arson."
"We go to Bellevue right now," Alexander commanded.
Twenty minutes later, their armored motorcade sliced through the heavy Manhattan traffic, sirens blaring as private security outriders cleared the intersections.
When they arrived at the high-security ICU wing of Bellevue Hospital, two armed guards saluted Alexander and unlocked the heavy steel-reinforced door.
Inside, stripped of her expensive couture, diamond jewelry, and pristine makeup, Victoria Sterling lay hooked to a tangle of intravenous lines and a heart monitor. Her skin was pale and sickly green, her lips cracked and dry.
When the door clicked shut, Victoria’s eyes slowly fluttered open. When she saw Clara standing at the foot of the bed, a shudder of terror and humiliation ran through her frail frame.
"You..." Victoria rasped, her voice barely audible over the rhythmic beeping of the monitor. "You came to watch me die?"
Clara walked slowly toward the side of the bed. She looked down at the woman who, less than twenty-four hours ago, had stood over her with a whip in front of two hundred people.
"I didn't come to gloat, Victoria," Clara said quietly. "I came to ask you one question. Why did you hate my mother so much? You were only a teenager when she died."
Tears leaked from the corners of Victoria's hollow eyes, leaving streaks through the grime on her cheeks.
"I didn't hate her..." Victoria whispered, her breathing shallow. "My father... he told me that if Eleanor Montgomery succeeded in launching her decentralized supply grid... our family firm would go bankrupt. He told me that if Eleanor lived, we would be homeless on the street."
"So you helped him plant the accelerant in the basement," Alexander said coldly from the doorway.
"I didn't know Aria was inside!" Victoria sobbed, choking on her own breath as the heart monitor spiked erratically. "I swear to God, Alex, I thought Eleanor was alone! When I heard the baby crying from the second floor... I tried to run back in, but my father dragged me away!"
Alexander remained motionless, his face an impenetrable mask of stone. "Who ordered the poison in your cell today, Victoria? Give me the name."
Victoria swallowed hard, her chest heaving as she looked between Alexander and Clara.
"It wasn't my father..." she whispered, trembling uncontrollably. "My father was just a puppet. The man who funded the entire operation twelve years ago... the man who owns the Swiss holding firms... is someone you trust with your life, Alex."
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Alexander took a step closer, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "Who?"
"Your private attorney," Victoria gasped, blood trickling from the corner of her lip as the monitor began flatlining into a continuous, high-pitched scream. "Jonathan Hayes... he's in your penthouse right now... looking for the second will!"
