Chapter 8 - The Ruin of Vance
Arthur Vance stared at his daughter, his mouth agape in utter disbelief and horrifying realization. "Victoria... what did you do?"
"Father, he's lying!" Victoria screamed, turning around frantically. "He manipulated the footage! He set me up!"
"The SEC has also opened an investigation into Vance Bio-Tech as of eight o'clock this morning," Julian added, his voice dropping into a deadly, monotone register as he walked slowly down the marble steps toward them. "Following a massive short-sell of your family's shares. Your stock is currently down forty-seven percent in pre-market trading, Arthur."
Arthur Vance gasped, clutching his chest as his face turned a dangerous shade of purple. "You... you destroyed us..."
"You destroyed yourselves the moment you allowed your daughter to think she could use my son as leverage," Julian said, stopping three feet from Victoria.
He looked down into her eyes. The cold, arrogant woman in the black leather dress and gold shoulder pads was gone. Standing before him was a desperate, ruined socialite whose carefully constructed life was collapsing into dust around her feet.
Detective Vance, the senior police officer standing behind Julian, stepped forward, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his tactical belt.
"Victoria Vance," the detective said sternly, "you are under arrest for felony assault, child endangerment, and attempted extortion. You have the right to remain silent..."
As the cold steel cuffs clicked around Victoria’s slender wrists, she began to struggle violently, her flawless bun coming undone as strands of dark hair fell wildly across her face.
"Julian! You can't do this to me!" she shrieked, her voice echoing frantically off the stone walls of the mansion. "I loved you! I gave you two years of my life! You can't throw me away for that worthless little boy!"
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Julian didn't answer her. He didn't even watch as the police officers led her away toward the waiting patrol car, her screeching cries fading into the heavy morning fog.
He turned his back on the Vance family, stepping over the threshold and back into the quiet warmth of his home.
