They Thought I Was A Fool, I Was Their Only Chance Chapter 05

They Thought I Was A Fool, I Was Their Only Chance Chapter 05

That one sentence.

It hit the room like a thunderclap.

The conference room went dead silent.

The pen fell from my father’s hand with a sharp.click.

Ethan’s forward step stopped cold.

Claire covered her mouth, her eyes nearly popping out of her head.

The smile on Grant’s face hardened, like a cheap mask cracking apart.

And Blake Mercer.

The warmth and composure on his face shattered.

Silence.

Ten full seconds of it.

I could even hear the faint rush of air from the central vent.

“Sloane… you… you’re speaking?”

My father’s voice shook so badly it barely sounded like his own. He stared at me as if I were someone from another world.

“Say that again.”

I didn’t look at him. My eyes stayed locked on Blake.

Blake swallowed.

His hand began to tremble, but years of professional discipline forced him to regain control.

“Miss Sinclair… what are you talking about?”

“This is a confidential commercial agreement. You don’t understand it, so don’t make reckless

accusations.”

He forced a smile and reached for the document.

“Mr. Sinclair, her condition may be getting worse. Have Megan take her to the hospital.”

He was still trying to hide the truth behind my supposed illness.

I gave a cold laugh.

Then I slapped his hand away.

The crack rang through the room.

His hand turned red at once.

“Counsel Mercer, your hands are shaking. Is that guilt talking?”

I straightened, my eyes sharp as blades.

“Any first–year law student knows that when a master agreement conflicts with an attachment, the

master agreement controls.”

“Section six of the master agreement sends every dispute to arbitration seated in the Cayman

Islands.”

“But section twenty–three of your attachment says debt settlement is subject to domestic fallback

provisions.”

I picked up the file and threw it in Blake’s face.

Pages scattered through the air.

“If there’s a default, the Cayman arbitration panel can declare Sinclair’s asset transfers invalid and bundle the entire company for sale to Grant Calloway’s shell corporation.”

“And every dollar of domestic debt will be placed on my father’s shoulders.”

* “That is your only way to protect us?”

My voice was not loud, but every word was precise, carrying the pressure I had once used to drive opponents into corners in court.

Blake’s face drained of color.

He stumbled backward and hit the chair behind him.

“You’re making that up!”

He was still trying to bluff. He turned to Ethan.

“Ethan, you studied finance. Look at this. It’s nonsense.”

My brother seemed to wake from a dream.

He lunged for the table, grabbed the scattered agreement, and began reading through it frantically.

This time, he knew what to look for.

Less than a minute later, his hand began to shake.

He stared at two clauses set far apart in the document.

His eyes turned bloodshot.

“Blake Mercer…”

My brother lifted his head and spoke the name through clenched teeth.

“You tampered with the forum provisions.”

He lunged like a wild animal, seized Blake by the collar, and drove a fist into his face.

Blake screamed.

His gold–rimmed glasses flew across the room, and blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“Ethan! Stop!”

My father shouted and staggered to his feet.

He pointed at Blake on the floor.

“You worked for me for ten years!”

“I treated you well. Why would you do this?”

Blake sat crumpled on the floor, one hand over his face, terror filling his eyes.

He could not understand.

The perfect trap he had designed had escaped even Ethan, a Wall Street–trained finance expert.

How had the girl who had pretended to be an idiot for more than a decade seen through it at a glance?

“It wasn’t me… Mr. Sinclair, this is a misunderstanding…”

He kept babbling excuses.

I had no interest in watching him make a fool of himself.

I turned to Grant, who had not spoken once.

“Mr. Calloway, shell–company tricks were already old news on Wall Street ten years ago.”

“Isn’t it a little embarrassing to use one on the Sinclairs now?”