My Family Sold Me For $7 Million. I Owned Their Building Chapter 07
Victor’s knees sank into the carpet.
He reached for Adrian’s pant leg. Ethan knocked his hand away with the side of his shoe.
“This has nothing to do with me,” Victor pleaded. “Richard lied. He promised the South Harbor title could be transferred immediately. My subsidiaries have perfectly clean books.”
Adrian did not look at him. He calmly adjusted one cuff link.
The conference room doors opened again.
Daniel Carter entered carrying a briefcase. He surveyed the room, came directly to my side, and removed a fully executed family settlement, along with separate inheritance disclaimers and trust resignations.
“Avery, the final notices and trust filings are complete.”
He turned so everyone could see the documents.
“As of three o’clock yesterday afternoon, Richard, Diane, and Chloe Monroe released every alleged claim against Avery Monroe and her property. My client disclaimed any inheritance from them, resigned from every trust they control, and waived any right to challenge their estate plans. They are still related by blood. In every legal and financial sense that matters here, however, they are strangers. None of their debts can be assigned to my client.”
Richard stared at the settlement, his eyes bulging.
He lunged forward and tried to tear it from Daniel’s hands.
Daniel moved aside with ease.
“Destroying my copy will not void a signed contract, Mr. Monroe. The originals are in escrow, and encrypted copies went to every party the moment you signed. Besides, you could tear up a thousand pages and still not fill the hole in your balance sheet.”
“You ungrateful little monster.”
Richard pointed at me. His hand shook violently.
“You planned this from the beginning. You stood there and watched your own family die.”
“I gave you a chance.”
I pushed the torn sack aside with my foot.
“The day I arrived, that sack held a bank commitment for a forty-million-dollar bridge facility and my signed wire authorization. One decent word from you would have saved the company.”
I paused.
“Instead, you called me a curse and kicked my bag across the floor.”
Diane screamed. She grabbed Chloe by the arm.
“Talk to Victor. Make him help us. You’re good at getting men to do things for you. Save your father.”
Chloe tore herself free and backed away.
“Are you insane? This isn’t my fault.”
Her voice rose to a piercing pitch.
“The fake South Harbor collateral was your idea. You said if we tricked Avery into coming home and forced her to sign the paperwork, we could blame the entire fraud on her. Don’t drag me into it now.”
Diane went still.
She stared at the daughter she had protected and pampered for eighteen years.
“Chloe, how can you say that? Everything I did was for you. I wanted you to keep your place as the Monroe heiress.”
“I am the Monroe heiress.”
Chloe clenched her teeth.
“None of this would have happened if you hadn’t brought that curse back into our lives. Everything started falling apart the moment she walked through the door.”
I laughed.
“Because I walked through the door?”
I turned to Richard.
“You have always believed the company failed eighteen years ago because I was born, haven’t you?”
He stared at me without answering.
Daniel opened his tablet and displayed a series of old banking records on the conference room screen.
“Eighteen years ago, Monroe Holdings suffered a complete liquidity crisis,” he said. “An anonymous offshore account transferred fifty million dollars and kept the company alive.”
He enlarged the transaction record.
I met Richard’s eyes.
“Grandpa settled that trust for me before he died. Grandma, acting as trustee, used part of it to make Monroe Holdings a secured rescue loan. You were so desperate for cash that you never bothered to learn who owned the trust.”
Richard’s pupils contracted.
Daniel moved to the next record.
“Three years ago, Monroe Holdings lost heavily in a fraudulent online lending scheme. A twenty-five-million-dollar interest-free loan prevented another bankruptcy. The lender was another trust controlled for Avery’s sole benefit.”
I stood and planted both palms on the table, forcing Richard to look at me.
“You spent my money and lived in my house while telling everyone I was a curse.”
His expression collapsed one piece at a time.
“Now I have stopped paying for your mistakes. That is the only bad luck you are experiencing.”