Chapter 7 - THE RECKONING OF THE AUDIT
Richard’s face drained of every drop of color. "RICO?! On what possible legal grounds?!"
Captain Marcus Vance stepped forward, tossing a ruggedized titanium flash drive onto the table.
"On the grounds of thirty-six counts of grand corporate embezzlement, bid-rigging on Boston harbor dredging contracts, and interstate money laundering," Marcus replied, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that silenced the entire floor.
Marcus projected the drive's contents onto the eighty-inch wall monitor:
"For three years, Richard, you systematically siphoned twelve million dollars from the dockworkers' pension reserve into dummy corporations in Grand Cayman. When you realized Mark was reviewing the commercial books after his wedding, you planned to use an absurd morality clause about a toddler eating cake frosting to strip him of his voting proxy."
The eight board trustees gasped in horror, pushing their chairs away from Richard as if he were carrying a plague.
Diane Sterling walked through the doorway, her heels clicking in sharp, deadly cadence, holding a copy of her late husband’s true, un-redacted will.
"You thought my son was soft, Richard," Diane spoke, her eyes burning with maternal steel. "You thought because I care about etiquette, I am blind to theft. You tried to use a child’s innocence to steal our family's foundation."
Diane looked at the federal marshals waiting by the door:
"Take him out of my building."
SNAP. CLICK.
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The heavy stainless-steel handcuffs locked around Richard Sterling’s wrists, pinning his arms behind his tailored suit.
As the disgraced uncle was dragged down the corridor toward the waiting elevator banks, Mark turned to Brooke, wrapping his arm securely around her waist, cementing their undisputed leadership over the maritime empire.
