Chapter 10 - The Eviction into the Cold
Julian stayed frozen on the floor, his chest heaving as if he were suffocating beneath the weight of his own crimes.
His hands trembled violently against the polished wood, his eyes wide and completely vacant.
"Dead...?" Julian whispered, the word barely escaping his pale lips.
"No... no, that can't be true... you're lying to punish me..."
"You made this up to turn the board against me!"
"You're trying to destroy my reputation!"
"Show him the certified death certificate, Arthur," I ordered without taking my eyes off him.
Arthur stepped forward, dropping an official paper stamped by the City of New York directly onto Julian’s lap.Daniel James Vance. Time of death: 03:15 a.m. Cause of death: Total placental abruption resulting from untreated trauma and lack of emergency intervention.
Julian looked at the document, his fingers shaking so violently that the paper rattled like dry leaves.
Tears finally welled in his eyes, but they were not the pure tears of a grieving father; they were the panicked, self-pitying tears of a narcissist who realized his empire of lies had collapsed.
"Oh God... Evelyn... I didn't know... I swear to God I didn't know it was that serious..." Julian began to weep, crawling forward on his knees toward my feet.
"I thought you were just exaggerating to make me come home!"
"You know how you get when you're anxious!"
"If I had known... if I had known Daniel was in danger, I would have caught the first flight back!"
"Please, Evelyn, don't do this to me!"
"I lost my son too! We need each other right now!"
"Do not dare utter his name with that mouth," I snarled, stepping back to avoid his reaching hands as if he were a diseased animal.
"You did not lose a son, Julian."
"You abandoned him."
"You murdered him with your neglect, your selfishness, and your greed."
I turned toward Marcus, who had already signaled two armed security guards standing by the doorway.
"Marcus, escort this trespasser off the premises."
"Wait! No! You can't throw me out like garbage!" Julian screamed, scrambling to his feet as the two guards clamped heavy hands onto his shoulders.
"I am Julian Vance! My name is on the front of this damn building!"
"The building was named Vance forty years ago after my father, Jonathan Vance, who picked you out of the gutter and gave you a career," I replied, staring directly into his manic face.
"Your name will be scrubbed from the lobby directory by noon today."
"Your security badge has been shredded."
"Your belongings are waiting for you in two cardboard boxes on the loading dock by the trash compactors."
"And when you step onto Park Avenue, you will find that your bank accounts are frozen by federal investigators looking into the four point two million dollars you embezzled over the last eighteen months."
Julian's eyes widened to the size of saucers at the mention of the embezzled funds.
"You... you audited the Cayman logistics shell company?" he gasped, his voice squeaking in absolute panic.
"Arthur filed the forensic evidence with the Southern District of New York an hour ago, Julian," I said, a faint, cold smile touching the corner of my lips for the first time.
"The FBI's financial crimes unit will likely be waiting for you outside the revolving doors."
"No! Evelyn, please! Have mercy! I'll go to prison!" Julian shrieked, kicking and thrashing as the two guards dragged him backward down the long hallway.
"I made you who you are! You would be nothing without me!"
"You're a monster, Evelyn! A monster!"
His pathetic screams echoed down the corridor, growing fainter and fainter as the elevator doors closed on his desperate, thrashing figure.
The boardroom fell into dead silence once more.
I stood tall at the head of the mahogany table, smoothing down the fabric of my black mourning dress.
I looked at the twelve directors who had watched Julian rise, fall, and disintegrate in the span of thirty minutes.
"Gentlemen," I said, my voice steady, commandingly clear, and entirely free of weakness.
May you like
"The cancer has been excised from this company."
"Now, let us review the third-quarter supply chain logistics and rebuild the empire my father built."
