Chapter 4 - The Unraveling of Trent Preston
The entire boardroom fell into a suffocating silence as my legal team placed three thick binders of verified financial records onto the table.
Bianca, who had been sitting in the corner executive chair looking like a prize, stood up so fast her red stilettos clicked loudly against the floorboards.
"What is she doing here?" Bianca shrieked, turning to Trent. "You said she was out of the house! You said the police were handling her!"
"The police are currently reviewing the security cameras from the IVF clinic, Bianca," I said, looking her directly in the eyes until her smile vanished completely.
"The records show that Trent paid a secondary clerk ten thousand dollars to alter the transfer log on the fourteenth, trying to fake a cancellation notice."
"But they forgot that the main clinic database uses a decentralized server network that carries a mirrored log of every procedure."
Trent stepped toward me, his hands clenched into tight fists, his usual aristocratic confidence replaced by a desperate, animalistic rage.
"You think you can just march into my office and lock my funds, Sydney?" he hissed, his voice dropping into a low, threatening tone.
"The house is mine. The company name is mine. You're a nobody from the foster system who wouldn't even have a bank account without my signature!"
"Your signature hasn't been valid since midnight, Trent," my lead attorney stepped forward, handing a certified court injunction to the European representatives.
"Mrs. Sydney Preston holds a fifty-one percent controlling stake in the parent entity that owns the Preston Group building, the logistics fleet, and the corporate licenses."
"The student loan narrative you used to keep her name off the residential deed was actually structured as a capital contribution to her private LLC."
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The foreign investment team stood up in unison, bowing slightly to me as they walked toward the exit doors.
"The merger is officially terminated, Mr. Preston," the lead investor said as the elevator chime echoed down the corridor. "We do not do business with people who commit fraud against their own children."
