Part 7: The Secondary Intercept
The legal victory at the board meeting was absolute, but the underlying rot had not been fully extracted.
Two weeks later, a courier arrived at my blue front door, holding a silver leather-bound portfolio.
He didn't ask for a signature; he simply dropped the document on the porch and walked away.
I opened the file on the kitchen island while the morning sun filtered through the blinds.
The document was an official notification of a secondary regulatory lawsuit filed in the neighboring district.
The petitioner wasn't a member of the Mercer family directly.
It was Vanessa Hale.
The venture capitalist who had partnered with Julian during the initial startup development.
She was claiming that her boutique firm held a prior lien against my northern real estate assets.
"She's trying to force a market delay, Harper," Marcus said when he arrived at the house.
"If the judge grants her an emergency hearing, your condo transactions will be frozen at the baseline."
I looked down at the tiny stitched flowers on my cardigan, a cold separation forming inside my chest.
They truly believed that because I was alone, my focus would remain too fragmented to fight back.
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"They want a public courtroom drama, Marcus," I said, a dangerous smile touching my lips.
"Let's give them an absolute liquidation instead."
