Chapter 2 - The Sterling Connection
Arthur Sterling practically shoved his way past the complaining wedding guests to reach the front gate.
His expensive black tuxedo was already wrinkled, and beads of sweat were rapidly forming on his wrinkled forehead.
Spencer quickly turned around, foolishly assuming his wealthy new father-in-law had come to aggressively defend his honor.
"Arthur, please do not worry, my crazy ex-wife is just having a pathetic mental breakdown," Spencer confidently lied to the older man.
"I will have the local police quietly remove her from the property in a few minutes so we can resume the beautiful ceremony," Spencer promised while adjusting his ivory suit jacket.
Arthur completely ignored Spencer and grabbed the iron bars of the gate with trembling hands.
"Missus Laura, I swear on my life that I had absolutely no idea this man was legally married to you," Arthur pleaded with sheer terror in his eyes.
Evelyn gasped loudly, clearly shocked to hear a billionaire speaking to me with such overwhelming respect and fear.
"Dad, what on earth are you doing talking to that crazy woman?" Penelope whined as she marched over in her heavily sweating wedding dress.
"Shut your mouth right now, Penelope, before you ruin our entire family!" Arthur screamed at his own daughter, silencing her instantly.
Arthur turned his desperate, pleading eyes back to me.
"Missus Laura, you know that Sterling Construction relies entirely on the Apex Holdings grace period for our corporate loans," he begged pitifully.
"If you call in my massive debts today because of this foolish boy's mistake, my entire empire will file for bankruptcy by tomorrow morning," Arthur confessed in front of everyone.
Spencer staggered backward as if he had just been physically punched in the stomach.
"Arthur, what are you talking about, she is just a mid-level corporate accountant," Spencer stammered in total confusion.
"You absolute idiot, your wife is Laura Vanguard, the supreme Chairwoman of Apex Holdings, and she literally owns half of the real estate in this city," Arthur yelled right into Spencer's face.
The absolute silence that fell over Evelyn and Spencer was the most delicious sound I had ever heard in my entire life.
Evelyn's face turned a horrifying shade of purple as the devastating reality of her massive mistake finally washed over her.
"You lied to us for eight years just to make us look like fools!" Evelyn suddenly shrieked like a wild animal.
She aggressively shoved her own son out of the way and reached through the iron bars, violently trying to grab my hair.
Before her greedy fingers could even touch me, two massive, heavily armed Apex security SUVs screeched to a halt right on the sidewalk behind me.
Four large men in tactical black suits instantly stepped out, effectively creating a highly intimidating human wall between me and the metal gate.
My personal attorney, Mister Miller, calmly stepped out of the second vehicle holding a thick leather briefcase.
"Good afternoon, Missus Vanguard, I have brought the official eviction notices exactly as you requested," Miller announced in a crisp, professional tone.
Spencer suddenly began to violently hyperventilate, clutching his chest as he realized his entire luxurious life was crumbling into dust.
"Laura, baby, please let us just go inside and talk about this like reasonable adults," Spencer begged, completely dropping his arrogant facade.
"There is absolutely nothing left for us to talk about, Spencer," I replied coldly while motioning for Miller to hand over the legal papers.
"You have exactly one hour to pack whatever cheap clothes you originally brought into my house and leave the premises forever," I firmly ordered.
Miller smoothly slid the heavy stack of legal eviction documents right through the gaps in the iron gate.
Spencer frantically scrambled to catch the falling papers, his hands shaking so violently that he dropped half of them onto the dirt.
As Spencer desperately began reading through the top document, a sickeningly confident smirk slowly returned to his pale face.
"You cannot evict me, Laura, because technically, you do not own Apex Holdings completely on your own anymore," Spencer sneered with sudden, renewed arrogance.
I furrowed my brow, genuinely confused by his bizarre, baseless claim.
Miller quickly opened his leather briefcase again and pulled out a separate, highly classified banking folder with a grim expression on his face.
"Missus Vanguard, I just received an emergency alert from the federal bank while I was driving over here," Miller whispered nervously into my ear.
May you like
"It appears your husband somehow managed to forge your executive signature last month," Miller explained with a shaking voice.
"Spencer illegally used your company as collateral to secure a massive, fifty-million-dollar cartel loan, and the first payment just defaulted this morning," Miller revealed, sending a jolt of pure ice straight through my veins.
