Chapter 9 - The Desperate Strike
Four days had passed, but inside the secure perimeter of the Vance estate in Potomac, time seemed to move with a tranquil, restorative grace.
Dr. Evelyn Bennett closed her medical bag with a satisfying click. "Your vitals are completely stable, Audrey. The surgical incision has knit exceptionally well, and your iron levels have recovered from the delivery. But you must remain mindful of emotional stress. Postpartum hormones are volatile under the best conditions, and you have endured a war."
"I feel clearer than I have in six years, Evelyn," Audrey replied, leaning back against the plush velvet pillows of the master suite. She held Maisie against her chest, listening to the soft murmur of the infant’s breath. "For six years, I muted my instincts to keep peace in a house built on lies. That war ended the second I walked through those gates."
The door to the suite opened softly, and Arthur Sterling stepped inside. His expression, usually an impenetrable mask of patrician composure, was drawn tight with grim disdain.
"Arthur?" Audrey asked, her gaze sharpening immediately. "What has Derek done?"
Arthur pulled an iPad from his leather portfolio and turned the screen toward her. "Desperation makes a rat reckless before it drowns. Derek has retained a bottom-tier crisis publicist—one of those tabloid mercenaries who operates out of a basement in Arlington. Look at this."
Audrey looked down at the display.
A prominent online tabloid had published an exclusive banner headline: *SUDDEN EXPULSION: HEIR TO HALSTON DYNASTY SPEAKS OUT AFTER BEING WRONGFULLY CAST ASIDE BY UNSTABLE HEIRESS.*
Beneath the headline was a photograph of Derek looking disheveled, haggard, and sorrowful, sitting in what appeared to be a low-cost conference room. The article quoted Derek at length, alleging that Audrey suffered from severe, unmanaged postpartum psychosis, that she had abducted their infant daughter in the dead of night, and that she was using her family’s shadowy wealth to alienate a devoted father from his child.
Even worse, Evelyn Halston had provided a tearful video interview, claiming she had been thrown onto the street by a "cruel, calculating daughter-in-law" simply because she had tried to protect her newborn grandchild from Audrey’s erratic behavior.
Audrey felt a cold, sharp prickle of fury rise up through her collarbones. "He is trying to litigate in the press because he knows he cannot survive in a court of law."
"Precisely," Arthur agreed, taking the tablet back. "Derek understands that the financial documents are airtight. He cannot win a penny through commercial receivership. Therefore, he is attempting to manufacture a public relations crisis, hoping the Vance family’s historic aversion to public scandal will force you into an out-of-court financial settlement to buy his silence."
"He thinks I care about gossip?" Audrey murmured, her eyes narrowing into slits of pure, emerald ice.
"He believes you will break under the scrutiny," Arthur said. "His attorney has already filed an emergency writ of habeas corpus demanding that Maisie be surrendered to a neutral foster guardian pending a psychological evaluation of your maternal fitness."
Audrey looked down at her daughter. Maisie was sleeping peacefully, completely oblivious to the venomous currents swirling beyond the stone walls.
"Call a full press conference for tomorrow morning, Arthur," Audrey commanded, her voice dropping into a register of absolute, terrifying stillness.
Arthur paused, his eyebrows rising slightly. "Audrey... the Vance family has never held a press conference in its eighty-year corporate history. Your grandfather always operated entirely from behind the mahogany curtain."
May you like
"My grandfather lived in a different century, Arthur," Audrey said, lifting her chin. "Derek wants a public execution? Then I will give him one. But he won't be holding the axe."
***
