Chapter 13 - The Golden Cage Crumbles
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Victor stood frozen in the middle of the foyer, holding the stack of legal papers like a man holding a bomb.
Outside the grand front doors, the heavy hydraulic whine of a flatbed tow truck echoed through the courtyard as his silver sports car was lifted off the pavement.
Two security guards walked smoothly past him, stepping into his private study. They immediately began placing locking clamps on his desktop computers and filing cabinets, placing official legal seals across the keyholes.
“Hey! Don't touch those!” Victor yelled, taking a step toward the guards. “Those are my private business records!”
“They are corporate records belonging to Hayes Construction, Mr. Hayes,” Thomas Vance said, stepping directly into his path. “Records that are now undergoing an emergency financial audit by independent accountants.”
Vanessa ran toward the garage door, only to find two uniformed guards standing at the threshold, blocking her path to her designer wardrobe room.
“You have sixty minutes to gather your personal clothing items,” the lead security officer informed her flatly. “No jewelry, no designer handbags, no art pieces, and no luxury goods purchased using the corporate credit lines will be permitted to leave the premises without written authorization from Mrs. Eleanor Hayes.”
“My handbags?!” Vanessa screamed, her voice cracking with hysteria. “Those are mine! Victor bought them for me!”
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“With my mother’s money,” Victor whispered quietly, the horrifying truth finally hitting him like a sledgehammer.
His knees buckled. He stumbled backward, collapsing onto the bottom step of the grand staircase—the exact spot where he had stood twelve hours earlier, boasting to his friends about his self-made fortune.
