For forty-eight hours, the legal office on the 14th floor didn’t sleep.
Marcus Vance and Maya analyzed every single file on the USB drive. What they discovered went far beyond corporate greed. Beatrice hadn’t just embezzled millions from the estate—she had quietly transferred controlling shares of the family firm into an offshore shell company registered under a fake identity.
More dangerously, the medical logs revealed that Maya’s father was being given unprescribed sedatives to keep him confused and unable to make independent decisions.
“If we file a standard lawsuit, her lawyers will drag this out in court for years until your father passes away,” Marcus explained, tossing a heavy folder onto the desk. “We need a move that bypasses her legal team entirely.”
“What do you have in mind?” Maya asked, standing near the window as dawn broke over the rain-slicked city.
Marcus pulled out an official document stamped in red ink—an emergency court injunction freezing all corporate assets under suspect investigation, along with an immediate court-ordered medical evaluation for her father.
“If a judge signs this tomorrow morning, Beatrice loses control of the money and the mansion within twenty-four hours,” Marcus said, handing the summons to Maya. “But filing this means throwing a grenade into her world. Once she receives this notice, she will come after you with everything she has left.”
Maya took the paper, feeling the weight of the moment. For years, she had survived in the shadows of that house. Now, she held the key to pulling down the curtain.
“Let her come,” Maya said softly, her eyes flashing with cold determination. “She thought she destroyed me when she kicked me out. Now she’s about to find out who my mother raised.”
The chapter ends with the legal notice being delivered to the mansion gates as Beatrice opens the morning mail, her face draining of color.
