Chapter 4 - Stripping the Empire
Forty-eight hours after her admission to the hospital, Charlotte checked herself out against medical advice. Armed with a chest brace, pain medication, and an unshakeable will, she set up an emergency command center in the high-rise office of Vance & Associates in downtown.
The legal and financial war was escalating rapidly. Garrett had managed to post bail—set at an extraordinary two million dollars—by leveraging a commercial property he thought he owned outright.
What Garrett didn't realize was that Charlotte had spent the last two days assembling a team of forensic accountants to conduct a total audit of Andrews Development.
"He's panicking," Marcus said, placing a thick binder on the glass conference table in front of Charlotte. "Garrett walked out of jail yesterday afternoon and immediately drove to the headquarters of Andrews Development. When he tried to access the master administrative server, he found his credentials revoked."
"What did he do next?" Charlotte asked, sipping her black coffee.
"He tried to execute a emergency wire transfer of two million dollars from the primary operations account to a personal account in the Cayman Islands," Marcus chuckled coldly. "The transfer was flagged and blocked instantly by our freeze order. He then went to the main construction site of the Grandview Towers and tried to force the site manager to continue operations."
"Did the site manager comply?"
"Not after we served the city planning department with the compliance report you prepared," Marcus replied. "The city issued an emergency Stop Work order at 10:00 AM today due to structural integrity concerns regarding the foundation concrete. The press is outside the construction site right now. Shares of his partner firms are plunging."
Charlotte looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the law firm, looking down at the bustling city below. "Garrett's entire identity is built on prestige and dominance. He believes he can bully his way out of a legal cage. He's going to try to reach me directly."
Right on cue, Charlotte’s secondary burner phone rang. It was an unlisted number. She answered and pressed record.
"Charlotte," Garrett’s voice snarled through the speaker, devoid of any past pretense. He sounded unhinged, breathing heavily. "You think you're clever, don't you? You think you can use your little legal tricks to destroy seven years of my work?"
"I didn't destroy it, Garrett," Charlotte said smoothly. "You built an empire on fraud, physical violence, and stolen money. I simply pulled the curtain back."
"Listen to me, you miserable bitch," Garrett hissed. "You drop the criminal charges and sign off on the asset freeze by the end of today, or I will burn everything to the ground. I will make sure Andrews Development goes bankrupt, and you get nothing in the divorce! You'll be left with nothing but your medical bills!"
"You really don't understand how corporate law works, do you, Garrett?" Charlotte said, her tone almost pitying. "You think Andrews Development belongs to you. But I formed the umbrella entity, Andrews Global Holdings, as the parent company. I own fifty-one percent of the voting shares. You were merely an appointed managing officer."
Silence fell over the line. Garrett’s heavy breathing was the only sound.
"Yesterday," Charlotte continued, "the board of directors—which consists of myself and our two primary institutional investors whom I briefed last night—voted unanimously to remove you as CEO due to breach of fiduciary duty and moral turpitude clauses. You no longer have an office. You no longer have a corporate car. You no longer have an income."
"You... you can't do that..." Garrett whispered, his voice finally cracking with genuine fear.
"I already did," Charlotte said. "And as for our personal life? The police have recovered the security camera footage from our home network. The footage shows you striking me, throwing me into the counter, and kicking me while I was on the floor. My legal team uploaded it to the district attorney’s evidence portal this morning."
"Charlotte, please—" Garrett began, his bravado entirely collapsing into panic.
"I'll see you in court, Garrett. Bring your best attorney. You're going to need him."
She hung up the phone.
May you like
Marcus entered the room with a fresh set of documents. "We just received news from the sheriff's office. Your parents were just served with their formal eviction notice from the rental property. They are currently packing their belongings into cardboard boxes on the curb."
Charlotte felt no victory, no joy—only the quiet satisfaction of justice taking its course. "Tell the property manager to change the locks immediately once they leave. Now, let's prepare the civil suit against Garrett for corporate embezzlement and intentional infliction of emotional distress."
