Chapter 3: Victoria’s Panic
Victoria’s panic was quiet but vicious.
She cornered Avery in the powder room after the announcement, locking the door behind her.
“You think you can destroy us?” Victoria hissed. “I made you. I can unmake you.”
Avery turned from the mirror, calm.
“You didn’t make me. You broke me every day for three years and expected me to thank you for it.”
Victoria’s hands shook. “The board will never accept you. You’re an outsider. A gold-digger.”
Avery stepped closer.
“I have the votes. I have the documents. And I have three years of records showing how you siphoned money from Sterling through fake consulting fees to your friends.”
Victoria’s face went white.
Avery continued. “Leave quietly. Take the settlement I’m offering. Or I will make sure every dirty transaction sees daylight.”
Victoria laughed, sharp and broken. “Liam will never let you do this.”
“Liam already knows,” Avery said. “He’s in the ballroom trying to explain to his son’s guests why his mother is a thief.”
Victoria grabbed Avery’s wrist. “You will not take my family from me.”
Avery looked down at the hand on her wrist, then back up.
“You already lost it the day you decided I was less than you.”
She pulled her arm free and unlocked the door.
Victoria stood alone in the powder room, breathing hard, the perfect mask finally cracked.
Outside, the celebration had become a reckoning.
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And Avery walked back into the ballroom with her head high.
The woman they had tried to break was now the one holding the empire.
