Chapter 2 - The Mirage Breaks
"What do you mean, the accounts are frozen?" Andrew roared into the phone, his voice shaking with a terror he had never experienced in his life. "Call the bank directors! Demand an extension! I am Andrew Vance!"
"They don't care who you are, Andrew!" Thomas yelled back. "The bank directors just told me that Vance Global has been blacklisted by the entire global banking alliance. They said we offended someone we shouldn't have. Andrew... who did you anger tonight?"
Andrew’s mind flashed back to the quiet, calm smile I gave him before walking out the door. This mansion... This company... They exist because I allowed them to.
"No... No, that’s impossible," Andrew muttered, his knees trembling. "She was a nobody. A girl from a broken family. Her father is just a regular old man..."
Brenda rushed to his side, her perfect makeup tightening with anxiety. "Andrew? What's wrong? What about my new boutique funding? The transaction was supposed to go through tonight!"
"Shut up!" Andrew snapped, pushing her away so violently she stumbled into Margaret.
"Andrew!" Margaret gasped, holding her chest. "How dare you speak to Brenda that way! Fix the power! The guests are leaving!"
Indeed, the high-society guests, sensing a financial disaster, were already rushing toward the exits. But the electronic gates were locked tight. Security guards were frantically trying to open them manually, but the system had been completely overridden by a remote military-grade firewall.
Suddenly, heavy footsteps echoed outside the glass doors.
A fleet of armored vehicles arrived, their bright headlights cutting through the darkness of the courtyard. A dozen men in immaculate dark suits walked into the mansion, led by a ruthless woman in a tailored white tuxedo. It was Victoria Vance—no relation to Andrew, but the most feared restructuring lawyer in the country. And behind her were the city police.
"Andrew Vance," Victoria said, her voice cutting through the humid air like a guillotine. "I am here on behalf of the Escalante Family Office. I hold the primary deed to this estate, the collateralized shares of Vance Global, and an immediate eviction notice."
Margaret stepped forward, her voice screeching. "Eviction? This is our family home! My grandfather built the foundation of this name!"
"Your grandfather died bankrupt, Madam," Victoria replied coldly, throwing a stack of financial records onto the table. "This mansion was bought out of foreclosure four years ago by the Escalante Trust. Your son signed a lease agreement allowing you to live here, completely subsidized by his wife, Mariana Escalante. Since the marriage is effectively over due to gross infidelity and domestic violence, the landlord has terminated the lease. You have thirty minutes to pack your personal belongings and vacate the premises."
Brenda’s eyes went wide. "Mariana? The Escalante Trust? As in... the multi-trillion-dollar Escalante shipping and banking empire?"
Victoria looked at Brenda with supreme disdain. "Did you really think a small-time real estate company could secure a zero-interest, five-hundred-million-dollar credit line on its own? Andrew Vance was nothing but a puppet dressed in fine silk. And tonight, the puppeteer took her strings back."
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Andrew fell to his knees, staring at the legal documents. Every page bore my signature—not as Mariana Vance, but as the High Sovereign Trustee of the Escalante Empire. He had spent four years signing documents I had prepared, never once reading the fine print because his arrogance made him believe he was the genius.
"Thirty minutes, Mr. Vance," Victoria warned. "Or the police will escort you out in handcuffs for trespassing."
