Chapter 16 - The Unholy Alliance
"What do you want, Richard?" I demanded, watching the rain streak across the windowpane like liquid silver.
"I want the Peoria files back from Marcus Thorne's servers," Richard replied without hesitation.
"I want the original master ledger that Julian kept in his safe deposit box."
"And most importantly, Arthur, I want the girl."
A cold dread seized my stomach.
"What girl?"
"Do not play games with me," Richard said, his voice sharpening into steel.
"June Holloway."
"The little cleaning woman you found scavenging crumbs in your midnight kitchen."
"You think she wandered into your mansion by accident?"
"You think a woman whose brother was crushed inside a Peoria turbine just happened to land a third-shift janitorial contract in your private home?"
The floor seemed to drop out from beneath my feet.
"June has nothing to do with this," I said, though a cold seed of doubt suddenly sprouted in my chest.
"June Holloway is the sole living heir to David Ashford’s trust," Richard revealed, dropping the words like lead weights.
"My disgraced younger brother David fathered a child with a factory worker’s daughter in Peoria thirty years ago."
"That child was June."
"She is Elena’s half-sister, Arthur."
"And according to the original family charter drafted by my grandfather, if Vance Capital ever liquidates its manufacturing division, seventy percent of the land rights revert to David’s direct bloodline."
"Julian didn't just want to strip the pensions."
"Julian was trying to starve her out so she would sign away the deed to the Peoria industrial park for pennies."
"Bring June down to the library, Arthur."
"Have her sign the Ashford release forms."
"Do that, and the men in those SUVs will turn around."
"Refuse, and the Department of Justice will receive an anonymous package before midnight proving that Elena Vance was the mastermind behind the entire international fraud."
"Her memory will be dragged through the mud of every tabloid in the Western hemisphere."
May you like
"Choose, Arthur."
The line clicked dead.
