Chapter 25 - The Truth About the Vance Legacy
We drove through the night,
winding through logging roads that Gabriel seemed to know by heart.
The adrenaline was beginning to fade,
replaced by a cold,
hollow realization.
"They didn't come for the ledger,
did they?"
I asked,
staring out at the dark trees rushing by.
Gabriel didn't look at me,
his hands tight on the wheel.
"No.
They came for what Ethan left in your name before he went to Chicago."
"What are you talking about?
He left me nothing but debt and a foundation built on lies."
"Check the deed to your mother’s old property in Ohio,"
Gabriel said.
"The one Ethan supposedly 'renovated' for Chloe’s parents."
"I thought that was his way of funneling money to her family."
"It was a cover,
Mabel.
That property sits on top of one of the largest untapped lithium deposits in North America.
Ethan found out about it three years ago.
He didn't move to Chicago for a corporate expansion.
He moved there to secure the funding to buy that land through a series of shell companies—companies that are all registered in your name."
I felt a wave of nausea.
The betrayal went so much deeper than a mistress.
He hadn't just used me as a fall girl;
he had used my family’s heritage as the collateral for his ultimate play.
Chloe wasn't just his lover;
she was the daughter of the original land surveyor who had found the deposit.
The entire three-year affair was a calculated business move,
and the 'first night' he came home wasn't a return to his wife—it was a confirmation of his possession of the property.
"So,
I’m not just a witness,"
I whispered,
the pieces of the puzzle finally clicking into a terrifying whole.
"I’m the owner of the most valuable piece of land in the country."
"And the Chairman wants it back,"
Gabriel said.
"Ethan was trying to double-cross Sterling by keeping the land for himself.
That’s why Sterling had him audited.
That’s why you were the one who 'found' the evidence.
Sterling used you to destroy Ethan so he could step in and seize the assets."
"But I have the assets,"
I said,
a new,
cold strength growing in my chest.
"I own the land.
I own the foundation.
And I have the evidence of how they tried to steal it."
Gabriel looked at me then,
and for the first time,
I saw a flicker of genuine respect in his silver eyes.
"So,
what’s the move,
Mabel Thorne?
Do we keep running,
or do we go back and take what’s yours?"
I looked at the carved wooden bird on the dashboard,
its wings forever frozen in flight.
"We don't run,"
I said,
my voice sounding like the crashing of the Pacific against the rocks.
"We go back.
But we don't go to the FBI,
and we don't go to the courts.
We go to the media.
If they want a drama,
I’m going to give them the performance of a lifetime."
I realized then that I wasn't the victim of this story.
I was the storm.
May you like
And the House of Vance was about to learn that when you burn a woman’s life to the ground,
you shouldn't be surprised when she uses the ashes to build a fortress.
