THE HEIR'S REVENGE.

CHAPTER 9

Chapter 9: The Settlement & The Scars.

The holding cells beneath the downtown precinct smelled of stale bleach and industrial floor wax.

Clara sat behind a reinforced glass partition in a windowless visitation room, her hands folded quietly on the laminate counter. Across from her sat Elena, stripped of her pearl studs, wearing a grey jumpsuit three sizes too large. Her hair, usually pinned in an immaculate twist, hung in limp strands around a pale, tear-stained face.

"Clara, please," Elena sobbed, pressing her palms against the glass. "You have to tell them it was all Julian. He forced me! He said if I didn't help him set up E.V. Holdings, he would destroy my family's reputation. I never wanted to hurt you!"

Clara stared at her former friend with a stillness that was far more damaging than anger.

"You wore my pearls while I bled on the cellar floor, Elena," Clara said, her voice flat, devoid of warmth or hatred. "You held his hand while he locked the door."

Elena’s sobbing cut off instantly. She froze, her breath catching in her throat as she searched Clara’s eyes. "What... what are you talking about? What cellar?"

"You don't need to understand," Clara replied softly, standing up from her chair and buttoning her coat. "Marcus Vance has already filed for your complete removal from the family trust. Every asset registered under your name is frozen. You will go to trial, Elena. And you will serve every single year of the sentence."

"Clara! No! Please!" Elena pounded her fists against the glass, her shrieks echoing off the cinderblock walls as the guard stepped forward, grabbing her by the arm to pull her back into the cell corridor.

Clara turned her back on the noise, walking out into the bright sunlight of the courtyard where Alexander Kane was waiting beside his car, two hot coffees resting on the hood.

"The District Attorney just signed off on the grand jury indictments," Alexander said, handing her a paper cup. "Julian’s bail was denied. Flight risk, given the thirty million he tried to route through Zurich this morning."

"And the board?" Clara asked, taking a sip.

"Panicked, relieved, and entirely falling in line," Alexander said with a rare, faint smile. "The share buyback executed at opening. Eldridge Global stock rallied fifteen percent by noon. You hold sixty-four percent of the voting power now, Clara. No proxies. No middle men."

Clara looked up at the glass towers of the financial district soaring into the clear blue sky. The phantom smell of smoke and charred silk that had lingered in her nose for weeks had finally begun to fade.