Chapter 6 - Victoria's Final Gambit
At 2:00 PM, Prescott Tower was buzzing with intense corporate panic.
In the penthouse office on the fiftieth floor, Victoria paced back and forth across the plush carpet, a glass of dark scotch trembling in her manicured hand. Her father, Richard, was furiously typing on his phone, yelling at his legal team.
"The judge signed the emergency custody order!" Richard yelled, slamming his phone onto the mahogany desk. "We have twenty federal marshals heading to St. Jude’s right now to confiscate the kids and arrest Adrian for interference!"
"Good!" Victoria hissed, her eyes wild with desperation. "Once we have the kids in state custody, we can make them disappear into a foster home in South America! And without the kids, Elena’s story looks like the ramblings of an escaped mental patient!"
Suddenly, the large double doors of the penthouse suite opened.
It wasn't their legal team.
It was Adrian Sterling, dressed in a tailored charcoal suit, walking into the room with absolute, terrifying calm.
Beside him walked District Attorney Marcus Vance and six senior FBI special agents in dark windbreakers.
Victoria dropped her scotch glass. It shattered against the hardwood floor.
"Adrian...?" Victoria stammered, stepping back. "What... what are you doing here?! The marshals are supposed to be arresting you!"
"The marshals aren't arresting anyone, Victoria," DA Marcus Vance said calmly, pulling a thick stack of federal arrest warrants from his leather briefcase. "Because twenty minutes ago, the FBI executed a search warrant on Blackwood Sanatorium."
Richard Prescott stood up, his face turning gray. "Search warrant...? On what grounds?!"
"On the grounds of human trafficking, illegal confinement, corporate fraud, and attempted murder," the lead FBI agent announced, stepping forward with handcuffs in his hand. "Dr. Ethan Cole has turned state's evidence. He gave us three years of security footage, financial ledgers, and audio recordings of every single phone call Victoria Prescott made to that facility."
Victoria’s breath caught in her throat. "No... no, Cole wouldn't—"
"Cole gave us everything to save his own neck," Adrian said, stepping closer to Victoria. "He gave us the video of you standing in Elena’s room, threatening to kill baby Mia. He gave us the wire receipts showing you transferred five million dollars from my company’s secret reserve account to pay for Elena’s confinement."
"You stole from my company, Victoria," Adrian continued, his voice icy. "You forged my signature on land deeds. You tried to murder my wife and stolen my daughters."
"I did it for us, Adrian!" Victoria screamed, her composure completely shattering as she rushed toward him, reaching out to grab his lapels. "I loved you! She was a nobody! A cheap nurse! I am a Prescott! I was meant to be your wife! I built this empire with you!"
Adrian stepped back, brushing her hands off his suit as if she were dirt.
"You aren't a queen, Victoria," Adrian said softly. "You're just a monster in a white dress."
The FBI agents moved in, grabbing Victoria’s arms and snapping the steel handcuffs around her wrists. She kicked and shrieked, her expensive hair coming undone, mascara running down her face in ugly black streaks as she was dragged toward the private elevator.
"Dad! Do something! Help me!" Victoria screamed.
Richard Prescott opened his mouth to call his lawyers, but two more FBI agents stepped up to him, clicking handcuffs onto his wrists as well.
"Richard Prescott," the agent declared, "you are under arrest for conspiracy, laundering, and high-level corporate extortion."
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As the father and daughter were marched out of the penthouse in chains, surrounded by flashing media cameras that had gathered in the lobby downstairs, Adrian stood by the window overlooking the city.
The sky was clear. The storm was over.
