Chapter 8 - THE PAPERWORK OF RUIN
"Excuse me?" Derek shoved the Porsche door open, stepping out onto the asphalt with his fists clenched. "Marcus, I don't know what kind of game you and Audrey are playing, but you work for us! Open this gate before I have you disbarred!"
Evelyn stormed out of the passenger side, her face flushed red with indignation. "Marcus Sterling! You were Arthur Vance’s employee! How dare you treat my son like a trespasser at his own home!"
Sienna stepped out of the back, her designer sunglasses pushed up onto her head, looking utterly bewildered.
Marcus didn't blink. He signaled to the security guard, who produced a heavy steel binder and unlocked the small pedestrian side gate. Marcus stepped through, holding a sheaf of embossed legal documents.
"Derek," Marcus said, his voice cutting through the chilly autumn air like a blade. "I am here in my capacity as the Sole Executor and Senior Trustee of the Arthur Vance Revocable Living Trust, as well as personal legal counsel to Audrey Vance."
"Audrey Vance-*Halston*!" Derek shouted. "She’s my wife! And this is my house!"
Marcus allowed the faintest shadow of a smile to touch his lips. He pulled the top document from the folder and held it up.
"This is the municipal deed of title for 1440 River Road," Marcus stated, his voice ringing out clearly across the driveway. "Would you care to read the named owner on the title registry, Derek?"
Derek’s jaw twitched. "We bought this together!"
"No, Derek. You didn't," Marcus corrected him coldly. "This property was purchased in cash by the Vance Family Real Estate Holding Corporation in October of 2018—four months before you were married. It was placed into a specialized irrevocable trust designated exclusively for Arthur Vance’s direct lineal descendants."
Marcus took a step closer, flipping the page.
"Section 14, Paragraph C: *'In the event of substantiated marital infidelity, emotional abandonment, or physical endangerment of the primary beneficiary or her issue, all residential occupancy licenses granted to non-lineal spouses shall terminate with immediate effect upon forty-eight hours' notice, or instantaneously upon evidence of gross moral turpitude.'*"
Derek’s face went chalk white. The arrogant swagger drained from his posture so fast he looked as though he had been physically struck. "That’s... that’s impossible. Audrey told me—"
"Audrey told you nothing, because you never bothered to ask," Marcus interrupted. "You assumed. You assumed that because she let you host your cocktail parties here, because she let your mother redecorate the sunroom, and because she signed off on your lifestyle requests, that you owned this land. You own nothing here, Derek. Not the ground you’re standing on, not the roof over your head, and not the gate you’re currently locked out of."
Behind Derek, Sienna froze.
Her eyes darted from Marcus’s icy expression to Derek’s trembling hands. The admiration in her face melted into sheer, unadulterated horror.
She took a slow step backward, her voice trembling as she looked at Derek.
May you like
"Derek... what is he talking about?" Sienna whispered, the embarrassment burning her cheeks. "You said this house belonged to you. You said you built this."
***
