Chapter 11 - The Shadow Benefactor
The victory on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was swift,
decisive,
and seemingly complete.
Yet,
as I sat in my corner office on the forty-fifth floor of Vane Tower,
a cold rain tapped relentlessly against the reinforced glass windows.
The city below was veiled in thick grey mist,
a stark reminder that in the realm of high finance,
peace was always temporary.
Carter Vance walked into my office without knocking,
his expression grave,
holding a heavy manila envelope stamped with red wax.
“Vivienne,”
he said,
closing the double oak doors behind him,
“we have a problem.”
I placed my gold fountain pen down onto the leather blotter,
looking up calmly.
“Grant’s bail was set at twenty million dollars,”
I noted.
“He couldn’t raise twenty thousand.”
“Has something changed?”
Carter tossed the envelope onto my desk.
“An hour ago,”
Carter explained,
“a high-powered defense firm,
Krueger & Sterling,
filed an emergency appearance in federal court on Grant’s behalf.”
“They paid his twenty million dollar bail in full,”
“in cash,”
“via a wire transfer from a shell company in Liechtenstein.”
My eyebrows rose slightly,
though my heart remained steady.
“Who is funding him?”
I asked softly.
“Grant doesn’t have friends with twenty million dollars in liquid cash.”
“Nor does Piper Vale,”
“nor does her brother Victor.”
Carter sat down heavily in the leather armchair across from me.
“That’s not all,”
Carter continued,
his voice deep and strained.
“Krueger & Sterling filed a civil injunction against you personally.”
“They are alleging that you orchestrated a deliberate smear campaign,”
“that you fabricated the audio recordings,”
“and that you coerced the board into stripping Grant of his executive power while he was under severe psychological distress.”
I let out a low,
amused breath.
“Psychological distress?”
“Is that what we are calling a hotel affair and corporate treason now?”
“They are attempting to freeze our corporate assets again,
Vivienne,”
Carter warned.
“They know the criminal case against Grant is strong,”
“so they are shifting the battleground into civil court.”
“They want to tie up Vane Global in litigation for years,”
“bleeding our legal defense funds,”
“and driving down the stock price.”
I stood up,
walking to the window,
watching the rain streak down the glass.
“Grant is a pawn,”
I said,
my mind assembling the pieces of the grander puzzle.
“He was a disposable asset to whoever engineered this.”
“If someone paid twenty million dollars to get him out of a holding cell,”
“it’s not because they care about Grant Ashford.”
“It’s because Grant knows something,”
“or holds something,”
“that they cannot afford to let the federal prosecutors see.”
“Who signed the Liechtenstein wire transfer,
Carter?”
Carter reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a single sheet of printed paper.
“The shell company is called Apex Sovereign Limited.”
“Its ultimate beneficial owner is hidden behind three tiers of nominee directors in Zurich.”
“But our financial intelligence team traced the clearing bank.”
“The money originated from Al-Mansoor Capital.”
I turned back from the window,
my eyes locking onto Carter’s.
“Tariq Al-Mansoor,”
I whispered.
“The billionaire chairman himself,”
Carter confirmed.
“He isn’t giving up on taking over this empire.”
“He tried to use Grant to steal thirty-five percent of your shares.”
“When that failed,”
“he decided to buy Grant out of prison,”
“arm him with army-grade defense attorneys,”
“and use him as a battering ram against your reputation.”
I smiled,
a sharp,
lethal curve of my lips.
“Then Tariq Al-Mansoor just made the biggest mistake of his life.”
May you like
“He thinks he is buying an ally.”
“He doesn’t realize he is buying a liability.”
