Chapter 14 - Blood and Leverage
The offensive launched by Julian did not stop in the corporate arena.
At three o'clock that afternoon, while the winter sky turned the color of bruised slate, an unmarked black SUV pulled up to the security gates of Saint Jude’s Academy.
It was the private school attended by nine-year-old Lily and seven-year-old Owen.
Claire had dispatched the family driver, Charles, to pick up the children, but when Charles arrived, he found the administration office in total chaos.
Claire’s phone rang in the library, the shrill ring slicing through the tension like a straight razor.
Claire answered on speakerphone, her voice tight.
"Charles? Are the children in the car?"
"Mrs. Vance... Claire, you need to come down here right now," Charles’s voice came through, strained and breathless.
"Julian is here."
"He brought two men in suits who claim to be state social welfare investigators."
"He’s demanding immediate emergency custody of Lily and Owen, claiming you are an unfit mother residing in an unstable domestic environment subject to federal asset seizure!"
Claire let out an involuntary cry of raw, maternal agony, dropping the phone onto the rug.
"My babies!" she screamed, lunging toward the parlor door.
"Claire, stop!" Margaret commanded, her voice like a whip crack that snapped Claire back to reality.
Margaret grabbed Claire’s arm with surprising, iron strength.
"Do not run out of this house screaming like a hysterical victim," Margaret commanded, her eyes burning with lethal clarity.
"That is precisely the show Julian has orchestrated for the cameras he undoubtedly has parked down the street."
"He wants a video of you unraveling in public to show the judge tomorrow morning."
"Arthur, get Judge Thornton on the line immediately," Margaret ordered, turning her head toward the lawyer without letting go of Claire.
"Remind Thornton who funded his foundation for judicial integrity and tell him Julian Vance is using fraudulent civil petitions to abduct Sterling heirs."
Arthur was already dialing, his expression dark and dangerous.
"And you, Claire," Margaret said, stepping right up to her daughter, brushing a stray lock of hair behind Claire’s ear.
"You are going to put on your finest wool coat, your diamond earrings, and you are going to walk into that school principal’s office with your head held high."
"You are not Julian Vance's terrified ex-wife."
"You are Claire Sterling."
"And nobody takes a Sterling child from their mother."
Ten minutes later, the silver Maybach roared down the winding driveway of the estate, cutting through the snowdrifts like an icebreaker ship.
Margaret sat in the back beside Claire, holding her daughter’s icy hand in a grip that felt like solid granite.
Julian had attacked the legacy; that was business.
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Now he had reached for the children.
And for Margaret Sterling, that was a declaration of absolute annihilation.
