Chapter 5 - The First Domino Falls
The Winthrop stock plummeted further when the opening bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange.
The panic was palpable.
Investors were selling off their shares,
Afraid of the rumors that were circulating about the company's internal stability.
Charles sat in his office,
Sweating profusely,
Staring at the screen.
He couldn't believe it.
The wealth that had seemed eternal,
The empire that had been built on generations of power,
Was crumbling in a single day.
He called his father again.
"Dad,
We need to liquidate.
Now.
Stop the bleeding."
"We can't!"
His father screamed over the phone.
"The accounts are frozen!
The SEC is launching an investigation into the logistics division!
Do you know what this means?"
Charles didn't answer.
He knew what it meant.
It meant prison.
It meant disgrace.
It meant the end of the Winthrop dynasty.
He slammed the phone down,
Standing up and pacing the room.
He had to find someone to blame.
He had to find a scapegoat.
He thought of Julian.
The scholarship kid.
The outsider.
He pulled up Julian’s file on his computer,
Looking at his history,
His connections,
His background.
There was nothing suspicious.
He had been a model student,
A hard worker,
A quiet presence in the social circles of Boston.
But something didn't fit.
How could he afford the lifestyle he lived?
How could he stay in the same circles as the elite without any visible means of support?
Charles began to dig deeper.
He hired a private investigator,
The best in the business,
And told him to find everything he could about Julian Vance.
"I want to know where he gets his money,"
Charles commanded.
"I want to know who his parents are.
I want to know everything."
While Charles was looking for a ghost,
Julian was moving through the city,
Laying the final traps.
He met with the lead journalist from the city’s biggest newspaper.
He handed over a thick file of documents.
These were the smoking guns.
Bank records,
E-mails,
Internal memos,
Proof of the Winthrop’s illegal activities for the last two decades.
"This will bury them,"
Julian said,
His voice cold and professional.
"It will be on the front page tomorrow."
The journalist looked at the papers,
His eyes widening.
"This...
This is everything.
How did you get this?"
"It doesn't matter,"
Julian replied.
"Just make sure the public sees the truth."
He walked out into the rain,
The city lights reflecting in the puddles.
The first domino had fallen.
The rest would follow soon.
He felt a strange sense of peace.
The weight was finally lifting.
He had spent his whole life planning for this,
And now,
It was happening.
May you like
He was the architect of his own liberation.
And the Winthrops were just the wreckage in his wake.
