Chapter 19 - The Counterstrike of the Sovereign
Serafina signaled to the main audio-visual technician.
Before Christian could object, the massive screens behind the dais flickered, replacing his financial charts with high-resolution documents.
On the left was the confession of Dorian Castellane, signed under penalty of perjury and witnessed by the chief magistrate of the district.
On the right was the private ledger of the Obsidian Syndicate, detailing every offshore wire transfer from Christian Vance to Eleanor Montgomery.
The ballroom erupted into gasps of horror and disbelief.
"You orchestrated the collapse of my marriage using twenty-five million dollars of laundered funds," Serafina announced, her voice ringing clear and merciless.
"You hired mercenaries to bomb Pier 44 this morning to force an artificial emergency."
"And you forged the date on my father’s codicil."
Lady Eleanor Montgomery’s face drained of color; she clutched her ivory cane so tightly her knuckles turned blue.
"That is a lie!" Eleanor shrieked, breaking her aristocratic composure.
"Julian signed that paper! He wanted a male heir!"
"My father wrote that paper, yes," Serafina answered, turning to look directly at Eleanor.
"He wrote it as a draft."
"He never registered it with the Highgate Tribunal."
Serafina reached into her small leather folder and pulled out a gold-embossed document bearing the blue wax seal of the Supreme Chancellery of Switzerland.
"This is my mother’s post-nuptial declaration, registered thirty years ago."
"Under our family trust's founding charter, any codicil signed by the patriarch without the living matriarch’s notarized seal is null and void ab initio."
"My father could not give away what my mother had already placed into an irrevocable blind trust for me at the moment of my birth."
Christian Vance’s face turned an ugly shade of purple.
He lunged toward the podium, knocking his microphone to the floor with a deafening screech.
"You think a dead woman's signature can stop me?" he snarled, dropping his refined accent.
"I own the debt! The syndicate holds forty-one percent of the bonds!"
"Not anymore," a calm voice called from the back of the room.
The doors opened again, and an elderly man with immaculate white hair walked in, accompanied by four men in tailored gray suits.
It was Lord Henry Sterling, the Chief Regent of the Highgate Tribunal.
"The Highgate Tribunal met in emergency session at dawn, Christian," Lord Sterling said, his voice echoing with absolute legal authority.
"Upon review of the sabotage evidence at Pier 44, the Obsidian Syndicate has been classified as an illicit hostile enterprise."
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"All forty-one percent of the bonds have been seized under the Sovereign Anti-Piracy Convention."
"They have been reassigned in perpetuity to the sole legitimate heir: Serafina Vance."
