Chapter 12 - The Iron Chamber
As the marshals led the screaming, protesting board members out of the room, Julian Vance was dragged into the boardroom in handcuffs by two police officers.
His blue suit was rumpled, his hair disheveled, his eyes wild with terror.
He locked eyes with Toby, who was standing beside Arthur at the head of the mahogany table.
"Toby!" Julian begged, his voice cracking. "Toby, tell them! I'm your uncle! I took you in when your father died! I gave you a job!"
Toby looked at the man who had starved his family, ruined his father's name, and treated him like garbage on the marble floor of the hotel lobby.
"You gave me a job so you could steal my father's watch, Julian," Toby said, his voice dropping into a cold, steady register that echoed his father's memory. "And when an old man came in from the freezing rain today, you told me to throw him into the cold."
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"He was a nobody!" Julian screamed as the officers forced him toward the elevator. "He was a filthy beggar!"
"He was human," Toby said quietly as the elevator doors slid shut, cutting off Julian's voice forever.
