Chapter 4 - The Mother’s EmpireVictoria motioned to the woman in the trench coat who had walked in behind the federal agents.

The woman stepped into the light of the center aisle, pulling off her sunglasses. Her face was scarred near her hairline, her eyes hollow, but her jaw was set in rigid determination.

Celeste looked at the woman’s face, and for the first time in her life, the powerful matriarch of the Vale family looked terrified.

“Clara...?” Celeste whispered, her voice trembling violently. “No... no, you’re in a private care facility in Switzerland...”

“I was,” Clara said, her voice shaking with ten years of suppressed rage. “Until Evelyn found me.”

Clara was Adrian’s older sister—the true heir to the Vale estate. Ten years ago, when their father passed away, Clara had discovered that Celeste and Adrian were embezzling millions from the family charitable trust. Before Clara could report them to the board, she suffered a suspicious 'car accident' that left her severely injured.

Celeste had used a forged power of attorney to declare Clara mentally incompetent, secretly committing her under a false name to a secluded psychiatric asylum in the Swiss Alps while telling the media she had tragically passed away abroad.

For ten years, Adrian and Celeste had lived off Clara’s stolen inheritance, using her fortune to build Vale Meridian Holdings while keeping her locked away in darkness.

“You stole my life, Mother,” Clara said, walking up to Celeste until they were standing face to face. “You told the world I was dead so you and Adrian could buy yachts, penthouse apartments, and political influence.”

“We did it to protect the family name!” Celeste shrieked, backing away toward the altar rail.

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“You did it because you’re parasites,” I spoke up, stepping forward in my undergarments, my head held high, completely unashamed of the marks on my body. “And today, the host is cutting you off.”

Agent Marcus pulled out a second set of handcuffs. “Celeste Vale, you are under arrest for federal wire fraud, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, human trafficking, and corporate embezzlement.”