The Aegis Trust

Chapter 4 Liquidating the Past

My father watched my face after saying *disowned*.

“Disown me?” I opened the file. “You can’t fire someone who already quit.”

I had spent the past six months compiling the fifty-page report. The tabs covered ten years of payments, guarantees, and accounts opened in my name.

I flipped to the first tabbed section.

“August, ten years ago. Vance Textiles was about to go bankrupt. I guaranteed a three-million-dollar line of credit with my inheritance from Grandmother. You never repaid it.”

I turned the page.

“Seven years ago. Chloe’s little hit-and-run incident. The settlement and the non-disclosure agreement cost me eight hundred thousand dollars to make disappear.” My mother flinched.

“Five years ago, a ‘family emergency fund’ was established under my name. You used it to purchase a villa in Tuscany. That was 4.2 million.” I looked directly at my father. “Two years ago, you used it again to cover your gambling losses in Macau. Another two million.”

The remaining pages covered my cousins’ private school tuition, my uncle’s failed startup, Chloe’s “medical treatments” at luxury Swiss clinics, jewelry, and cars.

Every entry had a receipt and wire confirmation. My uncle stopped shouting when he found his company name beside the date of the last transfer.

“You’re lying.” My mother stared at the account numbers. “That was family money!”

“It was *my* money. The audited total is twenty-seven-point-four million dollars.”

I returned the report to Marcus. He gave me a shorter document: a declaration of financial severance.

I signed it against the wall.

Then I called the number printed at the bottom. It rang once.

“Code Black: Vance Auxiliary,” I said, and hung up.

My mother’s phone vibrated inside her purse. She pulled it out and read the bank alert.

*Credit Denied.*

My father’s face went red. “You have no right.”

I pressed the lobby intercom. “Security to the penthouse level. I have trespassers on my floor.”

My mother shouted about gratitude. One uncle called me a snake. Two uniformed guards stepped from the elevator while the other uncle threatened to sue.

“Ms. Vance?” one asked.

“Please escort them out. They are no longer welcome here.”

The guards moved them toward the elevator. My father demanded names. My uncles promised lawsuits. My mother twisted around before the doors closed.

“You will regret this, Aria! You will end up alone!”

The elevator carried them down. Their voices cut off between floors.

I went inside and set the severance copy on the entry table. The apartment stayed quiet for less than a minute.

An encrypted number called. Damian Cross.

I answered, putting it on speaker. “What do you want, Damian?”

“This is business. A source sent me something from the legal side. Be careful.”

I waited.

“Julian and Chloe hired Fletcher. He handles ugly divorces and conservatorship cases, not corporate law.”

I stopped beside the entry table.

“They subpoenaed your medical records. They found the sleeping-pill prescription from two years ago, when you were closing the Singapore deal.”

Chloe’s video had already supplied Fletcher with the word *unstable*.

“The boardroom fight is over, Aria. Now they’re asking a court to declare you mentally incompetent and take away your right to make decisions.”