Chapter 6
The Trap Snaps Shut
The board members gasped, several of them standing up as they scanned the financial charts and the official forensic toxicology report bearing the stamp of the federal government.
"What is the meaning of this?" one of the senior directors demanded, looking frantically between Daniel and Margaret.
"This is the reality of the woman you’ve chosen to follow," Daniel said, walking to the front of the room and slamming a physical file folder onto the table directly in front of his mother. "Six months ago, Margaret Sterling paid a mechanic ninety thousand dollars to cut the brake lines on my wife’s vehicle. When that failed to kill her, she spent the last thirty days systematically poisoning her with a black-market neurotoxin to force a fraudulent power of attorney."
"This is a lie! A fabricated conspiracy by an ungrateful son who wants absolute power!" Margaret shrieked, her aristocratic facade completely dissolving as she slammed her palms against the table. "Arthur! Tell them! This is legally inadmissible!"
She turned to her brother, her eyes wild with a command for protection. But Arthur Sterling didn't look at her. He remained seated, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
"I cannot support you anymore, Margaret," Arthur said quietly, his voice carrying through the silent room like a death knell. "I have already turned over the financial logs and the original copies of the forged offshore shell companies to the federal prosecutors. I’ve accepted a plea bargain. It’s over."
Right on cue, the two federal agents stepped forward, pulling pairs of heavy steel handcuffs from their belts.
"Margaret Sterling, you are under arrest for corporate fraud, grand larceny, and conspiracy to commit murder," the lead agent announced, his voice devoid of emotion.
Margaret backed away toward the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, looking around the room like a cornered predator. She looked at the board members who had once bowed to her; they all turned their faces away. She looked at her son, but found only the cold, unyielding wall of a man who had completely cut her from his heart.
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Finally, her gaze landed on Ava. Ava looked back at her, a slow, calm smile touching her lips—the smile of a survivor who had pulled herself out of the grave Margaret had dug for her.
As the steel cuffs clicked around Margaret’s wrists and she was led out of the boardroom in front of a dozen flashing media cameras, the heavy shadow that had hung over the Sterling-Kane family for decades finally began to lift.
