676 "I Spent 4 Years Looking for My Wife, Only to Discover She Had Been a Prisoner in Our Own Home the Entire

Panicked murmurs exploded throughout the boardroom. Journalists were shouting questions, camera lights blinding the room, while board members scrambled to distance themselves from the Sterling family.

"This is a setup!" Victoria screamed, resisting as federal agents pulled her hands behind her back. "Julian, you think you've won? Look at your stock portfolio! Check the market right now!"

Julian calmly pulled out his tablet and tapped the screen, displaying the live stock exchange feeds on the main projector in the room.

"I anticipated your move, Victoria," Julian said, his voice smooth and cold. "You thought dumping your 35% stake in Vance Enterprises would crash our stock and bankrupt my estate."

On the screen, a massive green spike was visible. Shares of Vance Enterprises weren't crashing—they were skyrocketing to an all-time high.

"What... what did you do?" Victoria gasped, her eyes wide with horror.

"While you were busy preparing your smear campaign against me last night, my legal team revealed the criminal investigation into Sterling Group to our overseas syndicate partners," Julian explained, taking Clara's hand into his own. "By 5:00 AM, my private fund bought out every single share your family dumped at bottom-dollar prices. The Sterling family no longer owns a single share of this company. I own 88% of Vance Enterprises outright."

Richard Sterling collapsed into a chair, his head in his hands, realizing that his family’s multi-billion-dollar legacy had just been liquidated and absorbed in a single night.

As the federal agents began escorting Victoria toward the door in handcuffs, she suddenly broke free, throwing her full weight toward Clara with a desperate, wild shriek. "If I go down, you don't get to have her!"

Victoria pulled a hidden glass shard—a remnant from her broken champagne glass from the previous night—from her pocket, lunging directly at Clara's neck.