Chapter 5 - The Heir and the Ledger
I turned around slowly, Ava clutched tightly in my left arm.
With my right hand, I grabbed Julian Sterling by his custom-tailored silk tie, twisting the fabric until his face turned a mottled purple, yanking the billionaire down until his nose was an inch from mine.
"Destroy my firm?" I growled, every shred of professional courtesy stripped away. "Julian, before this day is over, you and your psychopath daughter will be sharing a holding cell at Rikers Island. And if my son dies... if Grace dies... there isn't a vault in Switzerland deep enough to hide you from me."
I shoved him backward. The mighty Julian Sterling stumbled, his heel catching the altar step, and fell flat on his back, his tailored suit jacket ripping along the seam.
"Lucas!" Brooke screamed, dropping beside her father. "You can't do this! You don't understand what’s at stake!"
"What’s at stake, Brooke? Your vanity? Your sick obsession?"
"The trust!" Brooke wailed, completely breaking down, tears finally smearing the thick mascara across her cheeks. "The Sterling Family Trust! It expires on my thirtieth birthday next week! If I'm not married with an heir or an expected child by the first of November, the entire controlling interest in Sterling Holdings defaults to my cousin Arthur! Everything! The towers, the funds, the family seat—everything goes to him!"
I stopped dead in my tracks.
The pieces fell together with sickening clarity.
It was never about love. It was never even about obsession. It was about survival in a dynasty of vultures.
Brooke didn't just want me. She needed an architect with a clean public reputation, a rising star she could mold and present to the family board as the perfect corporate consort. And when Grace turned up pregnant with my child, Brooke saw the ultimate prize: an unborn heir she could claim as her own, satisfying the draconian terms of her grandfather’s billion-dollar will without having to carry a child herself or dilute her power.
"You used me," I whispered. "You used my grief. You used my unborn son as a bargaining chip for your corporate empire."
"I loved you too, Lucas!" Brooke sobbed, reaching out toward my leg from the floor. "I could have given you everything! We could have ruled this city together! Why do you care about her? She’s nobody! She has nothing to offer you!"
"She has a soul, Brooke," I said, looking down at her with a disgust so pure it burned my throat. "Something you sold a long time ago."
I turned my back on the altar, on the ruined flowers, on the shattered glass of the lanterns, and on the woman who had tried to build her life upon the blood of my family.
"Officers!" I shouted to the two patrolmen standing in shock near the door. "Detain both of them! There is physical evidence of kidnapping, felony assault, and unlawful imprisonment at an address in the Catskills. The victim's sworn affidavit is right there on the floor!"
"Don't you dare touch me!" Julian roared, scrambling to his feet, adjusting his torn lapel. "Do you know who the Police Commissioner is? He plays golf at my club every Sunday!"
"I don't give a damn if he sleeps in your bed, Julian," the older officer replied, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his belt. "Ma'am, put your hands behind your back. Now."
Brooke let out a blood-curdling scream, kicking her heavy bridal gown as the officer pushed her against the wooden pews, the metallic *click* of the cuffs echoing like a gunshot through the empty cathedral.
I didn't stay to watch.
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Holding Ava tightly against my chest, shielding her eyes from the flashing red and blue lights reflecting off the wet pavement outside, I sprinted down the granite steps into the pouring rain, chasing the wail of the ambulance disappearing toward Bellevue Hospital.
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