I Froze the Shares Before He Could Give Them Away Chapter 06

I Froze the Shares Before He Could Give Them Away Chapter 06

Richard fell silent.

Then he said, “Arthur Brooks arranged it. He found the lab, and he delivered the samples. If you

don’t believe it, go ask him.”

I closed my eyes lightly.

Good.

Arthur Brooks has been pushed to the front.

In my last life, to save himself, Richard pinned all the financial issues on Arthur. Arthur wasn’t willing to go down alone and sent me an anonymous email before he left. But by then, I had no money for a lawsuit, and no one was willing to listen to a “madwoman” who had been kicked out of

her home.

In this life, I won’t let that email wait too long.

I said into the phone, “Richard, let’s call an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting.”

He sneered.

“Are you finally willing to sign?”

“I’m willing to let everyone finish what they have to say.”

“Fine,” he said. “Tomorrow at 10 AM. Don’t regret it.”

After hanging up, Margaret looked at me.

“Tomorrow is too soon.”

“It’s not,” I said. “They think the report settles it, so they’ll call everyone in. Directors, media, legal, finance-even Chloe will be there.”

Margaret closed the folder.

“You want to settle it all at the same venue?”

“I want to let them turn on each other in the same room.”

Margaret was quiet for a few seconds.

“Mrs. Sterling, your mother said something when she set up the trust. She said if there ever came a day when you had to trigger the clawback clause, it wouldn’t be because you were greedy, but because someone had driven you to a dead end.”

My fingertip pressed against the back of the brooch.

There was my mother’s monogram.

S. (Victoria Sterling).
I hadn’t dared to say that name for many years.

The Vances didn’t like me mentioning my mother. They said the Sterling family had declined, and a woman’s maiden name shouldn’t weigh down the Vance threshold.

But the day the lights first came on at the Vance Tower, it was Sterling money that paid for them.

I said, “Now there’s a way

out.”

“Which one?”

“Settling the accounts.”

The night before the extraordinary meeting, Arthur Brooks asked to meet me.

The location was the Vance Tower’s underground parking garage.

When I arrived, he was standing by a pillar, holding a cigarette he hadn’t lit.

His face was even paler than it had been at the board meeting.

“Mrs. Sterling,” he said. “How much do you actually have?”

I didn’t get out of the car.

I lowered the window halfway; rainwater slid down the glass.

“Enough to send you to prison.”

Arthur’s hand trembled.

“I wasn’t the only one cooking the books.”

“I know.”

“Richard told me to delete them; I had no choice.” He lowered his voice. “I’m just an employee.”

I looked at him.

“You said the exact same thing in my last life.”

Arthur froze.

I didn’t explain, just asked: “Did you find me to save yourself, or to test the waters for Richard?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Richard wants me to take the fall. He said if I admit it was a ‘financial classification error,’ he’ll

give me a sum of money and send me abroad.”

“Do you believe him?”

“No.”

As he said those three words, he looked like he had physically collapsed.

I handed a business card out the window.

“Before nine tomorrow morning, bring your saved original permission records, deletion logs, and

Richard’s instruction emails. Give them to Margaret.”

Arthur stared at the card.

“Why should I trust you?”

“You don’t have to,” I said. “You just need to think clearly: when Richard can only save one person,

who is the first to be sacrificed?”

Arthur didn’t take it immediately.

I didn’t rush him.

There was only the sound of rain and the low hum of the exhaust fans in the

After a long time, he finally took the card.

garage.

“I have one more thing,” he said. “Chloe Davis’s corporate bank statements.”

I looked at him.

“She registered two shell companies in the child’s name. Richard doesn’t know everything, he only

knows part of it.”

“Why tell me?”