Chapter 8 - The Sins of the Sterling Dynasty
Jonathan Sterling's face lost whatever remaining color it had left, turning the shade of spoiled milk.
""The... the docks?"" Jonathan whispered, clutching his chest as if his heart had skipped three consecutive beats.
""That was a private commercial development project from two decades ago.""
""That has nothing to do with this boy's insolence in the galleria yesterday.""
Sadi stood up from the chairman's chair, her ivory silk trousers falling in clean, immaculate lines over her long legs.
She walked down the length of the conference table, her low-heeled shoes making quiet, rhythmic clicks against the floorboards.
She stopped three feet away from Jonathan, looking down at the trembling patriarch of the Sterling family.
""My father was Arthur Hayes,"" Sadi said, her words dropping like lead weights onto the table.
Jonathan flinched violently, his eyes darting frantically to the door, to Roman, and then back to the glass window behind him.
""Arthur was an honest mechanic who owned the three-bay boat repair yard at Slip 14,"" Sadi continued.
""When your private investment trust wanted to build luxury high-rises along the shoreline, my father refused your below-market buyout.""
""He refused to sell the land his own grandfather had cleared with his bare hands.""
""So what did Sterling Capital do, Jonathan?""
Jonathan opened his dry mouth, but only a raspy, whistling wheeze came out.
""You hired dockyard enforcers to cut the hydraulic lines on his boat lifts,"" Sadi whispered, the memory burning hot and clear behind her eyes.
""A five-ton trawler collapsed on my father while he was working underneath the hull.""
""It crushed his pelvis and shattered his spine.""
""When he was lying in the hospital clinging to life, your legal team presented my mother with forged municipal zoning violations and foreclosed on the slip.""
""You took his livelihood, you forced my mother into thirty years of medical debt, and you watched our family starve from your high-rise terrace.""
Roman walked forward, his presence casting a long, dark shadow across Jonathan's hunched shoulders.
""You thought the Hayes name died in that public hospice ward, didn't you, Jonathan?"" Roman asked, his gravelly voice dropping into the freezing air.
""You assumed poor people simply dissolve into the soil without leaving an echo.""
""I... I had no personal involvement in the site clearance,"" Jonathan stammered, tears of sheer panic rolling down his wrinkled cheeks.
""It was managed by a third-party contractor!""
""I was in Europe that entire summer!""
""The check that paid the men who cut those hydraulic lines carried your signature, Jonathan,"" Roman said, tapping the edge of the red dossier.
""Elias spent six months digging through your archived offshore accounts in Grand Cayman.""
""We bought those canceled checks from your former bank manager three weeks ago.""
Chloe let out a scream, sliding off her chair onto the carpet, curling into a ball of silk and despair.
""Daddy, tell him it isn't true!"" she cried hysterically.
""Tell him we aren't criminals!""
""You are criminals,"" Sadi said, looking down at Chloe without an ounce of pity in her dark eyes.
""You wore dresses paid for by my father's broken bones.""
""You bought luxury handbags with the interest earned on my mother's foreclosed land.""
""And then you brought Trevor into your house because you recognized your own brand of heartless ambition in his smile.""
Trevor was groaning into the mahogany, blood dripping from his shattered nose onto his tailored lapels.
""Sadi... please..."" Trevor gasped, his voice muffled by the wood.
""I didn't know about your father... I swear to God I didn't know about the docks...""
""It wouldn't have mattered if you did,"" Sadi answered, turning her back on him completely.
""You kicked me because you thought I was defenseless.""
""You kicked me because you thought power belonged only to people who hold paper contracts.""
Roman reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out a thin, carbon-copy legal document.
He tossed it carelessly onto the table in front of Jonathan Sterling.
""This is the immediate, unconditional surrender of all commercial assets held by Sterling Capital,"" Roman stated flatly.
""The maritime docks, the high-rise residential parcels, and this fifty-story tower.""
""You will sign the transfer over to the Arthur Hayes Memorial Trust by noon.""
""If you refuse, the federal fraud indictment for Mr. Vance's embezzlement will be expanded to name you as a co-conspirator.""
""And the forensic team will present the twenty-year-old homicide investigation of Arthur Hayes to the district attorney before five o'clock.""
Jonathan picked up the gold pen with fingers that shook so hard the metal rattled against the glass tabletop.
""If I sign... do you spare my daughter?"" Jonathan wept, looking up at the terrifying mafia king.
""Your daughter will keep the clothes on her back and the shoes on her feet,"" Roman replied coldly.
""Nothing more.""
""She will learn what it feels like to work a fourteen-hour shift in an unheated room.""
""It will be the first honest education of her entire life.""
Jonathan bowed his head in complete defeat, placing the pen against the dotted line and scratching his name across the parchment.
Trevor lifted his bloody face, his eyes filled with madness and despair as he watched the billionaire empire evaporate into thin air.
""You ruined me,"" Trevor croaked, choking on his own blood.
""You destroyed everything I spent my life building!""
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""You built your life on dirt, Trevor,"" Sadi said, looking him in the eye for the final time in that room.
""And dirt always returns to the ground.""
