Chapter 4 - The Tapes and The Trait
"That’s a lie!" Vivienne shrieked, her voice cracking with desperation as she backed away. "She’s making it up! She’s trying to ruin us, Dominic! Look at her—she’s nobody! A penniless orphan! Why would you listen to a word she says?!"
Dominic didn't yell. He didn't raise his voice. But a dark, suffocating aura seemed to expand from him, filling the entire ballroom.
He turned slowly to face Vivienne. The coldness in his eyes was replaced by something far more dangerous: pure, unadulterated lethal fury.
"My mother," Dominic said quietly, taking a step toward Vivienne, "is the only reason I am alive today. She worked three jobs to raise me on the rough streets of Queens before I built this empire. Anyone who disrespects her... disrespects me."
"Dominic, please!" Vivienne whimpered, her hands shaking as she looked around at the crowd for support. But Manhattan’s elite, sensing danger, quickly backed away, leaving her isolated in the middle of the floor. "I love you! I would never say such a thing!"
Ella took a breath and took another step forward. She knew this was her only chance.
"It wasn't just tonight, Mr. Vance," Ella said, pulling a folded scrap of paper from her apron pocket. "Four days ago, I was cleaning behind the library wall near the adjoining study. Miss Ashford was inside with a man named Marcus Kane."
At the sound of that name, Dominic’s lieutenants instantly reached into their suits, their hands gripping concealed firearms.
Marcus Kane was the leader of the Syndicate’s primary rival firm in East New York.
Vivienne looked as if she had been struck by lightning. "Shut up! Shut up, you miserable servant!"
"She gave him the access codes to your harbor logistics server," Ella continued calmly, reading from the notes she had meticulously written down that night. "She agreed to leak your financial ledgers after the wedding in exchange for a thirty percent stake in Kane’s offshore holding accounts. And she told him that getting rid of your mother was step one in dismantling your focus."
"PROVE IT!" Vivienne screamed, tears of panic finally spilling over her dark mascara. "You have no proof! You're just a bitter maid trying to cause chaos!"
Dominic didn't look at Vivienne. He raised his left hand, flicking two fingers.
His head of security, a towering man named Viktor, stepped forward, holding a sleek black tablet.
"Boss," Viktor reported quietly. "We pulled the audio logs from the hidden secondary mic array in the library study from four days ago. Miss Marsh’s report matches the acoustic recording to the second."
Dominic closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them, the last shred of humanity had vanished from his gaze.
He looked at Vivienne as if she were already a corpse.
"You came into my house," Dominic whispered, his voice vibrating with terrifying power. "You ate at my table. You pretended to love me. And you insulted my mother while plotting to tear down everything I built."
"Dominic... please... mercy..." Vivienne sobbed, falling to her knees on the stained marble floor, her expensive birthday gown crumpled beneath her.
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"Viktor," Dominic commanded coldly. "Take Miss Ashford down to the basement holding office. Contact her father. Tell him the Ashford family’s assets are being liquidated by midnight tonight. If they are still in the state of New York by sunrise... they will disappear."
Two heavy security guards grabbed Vivienne by her arms, dragging her screaming and kicking out of the ballroom, her frantic pleas fading down the long, marble corridor.
