I Froze the Shares Before He Could Give Them Away Chapter 12

I Froze the Shares Before He Could Give Them Away Chapter 12

Half a month later, the court approved the temporary preservation of the trust assets.

The bank accounts of Chloe’s shell companies were frozen, and a portion of the offshore transfers was recovered. She applied to see Richard while in custody, and after being refused, she applied to

see me.

I went.

Not because I was soft-hearted.

Because there was still a sum of money in her name that she hadn’t accounted for.

In the detention center’s meeting room, she had lost a lot of weight, her hair was tied messily, and the ID tag on her wrist had rubbed her skin red.

When she saw me, she smiled first.

“Eleanor, you won.”

I sat down.

“Where’s the money?”

The smile on her face froze.

“You came to see me just for the money?”

“Who else would I come for?”

She stared at me.

“Don’t act so high and mighty. Aren’t you doing it for the money too? Without that trust, you? Richard never would have married you.”

what are

I said, “Without that trust, Vance Enterprises would have gone bankrupt seven years ago.”

Chloe grit her teeth.

“So what? So what if you have money? He still stayed with me for five years. He held me, comforted me, and bought toys for Leo. You, the legal wife, lived like a widow.”

She thought those words would sting me.

They would have in my last life.

Not now.

I just looked at the ID tag on her wrist.

She used to use the child as a card, tears as a card, and Richard’s favoritism as a card.

Now her own name had become a number.

“Chloe,” I said, “do you really think I still care who Richard sleeps with?”

Her expression turned ugly.

I pushed a copy of a bank statement over.

“The final $12 million-which account did it go to?”

She didn’t speak.

I stood up.

“Fine. If you don’t say it, you’ll carry an extra charge, and Leo’s future fund sources will continue to be investigated.”

She looked up sharply.

“Don’t you dare touch my son!”

“You’re the one who opened companies in his name.”

Her lips trembled.

I looked at her.

“The child is innocent, which is why I want to take his name out of your ledgers. If you confess now, he was just being used. If you don’t, he’ll be asked over and over again as an adult why he had shell companies in his name at five years old.”

Chloe finally lowered her head.

After a long time, she gave me an account number.

It was her brother’s offshore account.

…

As the meeting ended, she suddenly asked me, “You knew all along that Leo wasn’t Richard’s?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you say it sooner?”

I pushed my chair back.

“Because I wasn’t here to save Richard.”

She was left stunned.

I walked out of the meeting room, and the door closed behind me.

The sound was light.

Like the final lock on my old life.

On the day the company changed its name, the weather was beautiful.

The old Vance Enterprises sign was taken down by workers, the back of the metal covered in dust.

Many employees stood in the lobby.

Some took photos, some were silent, and some secretly wiped their eyes.

They weren’t sad for the Vances.

They just finally understood that this building was never one family’s myth.

Margaret stood by my side and handed me the final document,

“The name change process is complete. The Board has passed it.”

The new sign was brought up.

Sterling Holdings.

My mother’s maiden name. My mother’s name.

I took the brooch off and pinned it to the red silk next to the new sign.

The sunlight hit the silver edge, and the old pin still had that break in it.

Richard arrived at that moment.

He was stopped at the security line, looking haggard, without Beatrice, Chloe, or the child.

He looked at the new sign, his eyes looking as if they had been stung.

“Eleanor.”

I looked back.

He said, “I only just found out that your mother’s name was Victoria.”

I didn’t say anything.

He took a step forward but was stopped by security.

“I didn’t know before,” he said, his voice very hoarse. “You never told me.”

“I did.”

He was stunned.

“The first year of our marriage, I took you to visit her grave. You stayed in the car for three phone

calls and never got out.”

The last bit of color disappeared from Richard’s face.

He opened his mouth, but couldn’t say a word.

I turned back and looked at the shareholders and employees in the lobby.

“From today on, all related-party transactions will be re-audited, and all misappropriated trust assets will continue to be pursued. Every account that was hidden behind the Vance name will be

settled, one by one.’

Someone asked, “Chairman Sterling, what about the old Vance family projects?”

I said, “Save what can be saved, cut what is rotten. The company will no longer pay for anyone’s

family myths.”

The lobby was silent for a second.

Then, applause broke out.

It wasn’t perfectly synchronized, but it lasted a long time.

Richard stood outside the door, watching me.

I didn’t look at him again.

That wedding ring had already gone into the evidence bag along with the voided Deed of Gift

That infertility diagnosis had become a page in the hospital’s investigative file.

That brooch was finally no longer the keepsake I clutched before my death.

It had returned to my mother’s name.

The Vances wanted an heir.

The Sterlings wanted someone to settle the accounts.

And I was the one who came back to settle them.