Chapter 3 - The Anatomy of a Parasite
The ballroom had emptied of its civilian guests within fifteen minutes. People didn't walk out; they fled, terrified that staying in the room would make them accomplices to whatever reckoning Adrian Vale was about to orchestrate.
By ten o'clock, the only people left in the vast, echoing hall were Derek, Marcus, Chloe, myself, Adrian, and half a dozen of Adrian’s silent, imposing guards stationed at every exit.
My right hand was wrapped in a makeshift ice pack and a tight elastic bandage that one of Adrian’s medics had applied with clinical precision. The throbbing had settled into a dull, agonizing ache, but my mind was sharper than it had ever been.
Chloe was sobbing softly in the corner, her expensive silver dress stained with spilled champagne, her mascara running down her cheeks. The invincible mistress had realized, with terrifying clarity, that Derek didn't love her, didn't have the money to support her, and was currently about five seconds away from blaming her for his entire downfall.
“Derek,” Chloe whimpered, sniffling as she tugged at his sleeve. “Tell them... tell them we can just leave. We’ll go to Florida. We have the savings from the—'
“Shut up, Chloe!” Derek roared, spinning around and shoving her against the wall with enough force to rattle the antique sconces. “Just shut your stupid mouth! You did this! If you hadn't left your phone out, if you hadn't pushed me—'
“I pushed you?!” Chloe shrieked, her voice cracking with hysteria. “You promised me everything! You told me she was a weak, spineless idiot who wouldn't even notice her father’s money disappearing! You said we’d be living in the penthouse by next month!”
I watched them tear each other apart with a strange, detached fascination. Nine years. I had spent nine years believing Derek was a brilliant, stressed, misunderstood genius who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Watching him devolve into a snarling, cowardly animal trying to throw his mistress under the bus was the best birthday present I could have ever asked for.
Adrian stepped between them, his heavy leather shoes clicking rhythmically against the marble.
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't yell. He simply reached out, grabbed Derek by the lapel of his ruined tuxedo, and hoisted him off his feet with terrifying ease.
“You have a very bad habit of touching women who don't want you, Derek,” Adrian murmured, his face inches from Derek’s terrified eyes.
“Mr. Vale—please—I can explain—my father-in-law was—'
“Your father-in-law was an honest man who built his business with calloused hands while you were sitting in country club bars practicing how to smile at rich old ladies,” Adrian interrupted, his voice dropping an octave. “And you spent the last two years systematically looting his legacy to buy apartments for a woman who looks like she shops at a clearance rack in Atlantic City.”
Chloe let out a strangled gasp of pure insult, but one look from Adrian’s enforcer silenced her instantly.
“What do you want?” Derek sobbed, tears of genuine terror finally spilling over his eyelids. “Money? I can sign over my shares in V&C Technologies! I have equity! I have holdings! Just don't—please—my brother didn't mean—'
“Your brother is going to federal prison for wire fraud, embezzlement, and a few other tax irregularities my accountants discovered before dinner,” Adrian said calmly. He let go of Derek, letting him drop back onto the floor like a sack of wet laundry. “As for you, Derek... you don't have any shares left to sign over.”
Derek blinked, wiping sweat from his forehead. “What are you talking about? V&C Technologies is worth millions!”
“Was worth millions,” a new voice echoed from the grand doorway.
We all turned.
A tall, impeccably dressed woman in a sharp navy pantsuit walked into the ballroom, holding a sleek black tablet. It was Victoria Vance—Derek’s older sister, a corporate restructuring lawyer out of Boston whom the family usually kept hidden in a closet because she was too ruthless for polite society.
Victoria looked down at her brother with the absolute, freezing contempt usually reserved for biological waste.
“I spent the last four hours executing an emergency injunction on behalf of the primary trust beneficiary,” Victoria said crisply, not even bothering to look at Derek. She turned her eyes toward me, giving me a short, respectful nod. “Happy birthday, Emily. Your father’s trust has been fully recovered, audited, and transferred entirely into your sole, independent name. Furthermore, V&C Technologies has been placed into receivership. Derek’s voting rights have been terminated, his company credit cards are cancelled, and his personal assets—including the summer home in Cape Cod, the BMW, and his retirement accounts—have been frozen to cover corporate damages.”
Derek stared at his sister, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. “Victoria... you’re my sister! You can't do that! We’re family!”
“Family doesn't embezzle from dead men to pay for their mistresses' cosmetic surgery,” Victoria replied coldly. She turned back to Adrian. “Mr. Vale. Thank you for your assistance in securing the perimeter. My associates are waiting outside to escort Mr. Vance off the property.”
“Wait,” I said.
Everyone froze.
Victoria stopped. Adrian turned to look at me, his expression softening just a fraction. Derek looked up from the floor, a pathetic, desperate spark of hope flickering in his eyes.
“Emily,” Derek whispered, crawling toward me on his hands and knees. “Emily, please. We can fix this. We can go home. I made a mistake, I was stressed, I lost my way... but we’re husband and wife. Nine years, Em. Don't throw this away.”
I looked down at him. At the man who had broken my bones because I caught him cheating. At the man who had planned to steal my inheritance and leave me with nothing.
I raised my right hand—swollen, bruised, throbbing with pain—and pointed a single finger at his chest.
“You asked me to apologize to Chloe,” I said softly.
Derek blinked, confused. “What?”
“At my birthday party,” I continued, my voice steady and cold. “You told me to apologize for embarrassing you. You told me I made you break my hand.”
May you like
I leaned down, my face inches from his.
“You didn't make me break your marriage, Derek. You did that all by yourself.” I looked up at Adrian’s enforcers. “Take him out of my house.”
