Chapter 19 - The Auction Block
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I walked out into the grand lobby of Sutton Design Group.
Standing near the glass display case housing the scale model of Riverbend Commons was an elderly man in a dark charcoal trench coat. He had sharp, silver hair and piercing blue eyes that looked remarkably similar to Arthur Vance’s, but his face carried deep, weathered lines of a man who had lived a hard, dangerous life abroad.
He turned as he heard my footsteps, resting both hands on a silver-topped walking cane.
“Leah Sutton,” Alexander Vance said, his voice deep and resonance, bearing a faint European accent. “You have your grandmother’s eyes.”
“Mr. Vance,” I said, stopping a few feet from him. “Arthur never mentioned he had a brother who was still alive.”
Alexander offered a dry, mysterious smile. “Arthur believes I died in Zurich eighteen years ago. It was... convenient for everyone involved if my name remained buried.”
He reached into his thick trench coat, pulled out a heavy, leather-bound journal tied with a faded brass clasp, and set it gently on the glass display case.
“What is this?” I asked, looking at the worn leather.
“When Eleanor Rhodess’s husband, Julian’s father, built the original foundation of Vanguard thirty years ago,” Alexander explained softly, “he didn't do it alone. He took a massive loan from an offshore syndicate operating out of Switzerland—a syndicate your grandmother spent fifteen years quietly tracking.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Nana Rose?”
“Your grandmother wasn't just a land investor, Leah,” Alexander whispered, leaning closer. “She was an auditor for the Federal Reserve’s international fraud division. And this journal contains the master ledger of every corporate entity that syndicate funded across North America.”
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He tapped his gloved finger against the leather cover.
“Eleanor’s twelve-million-dollar offshore debt wasn't a gambling loss, Leah. It was an enforcement penalty levied by people who do not accept bankruptcy declarations.”
