Chapter 4 - The Cracking Facade
By ten in the morning, the Blackwood corporate headquarters on Madison Avenue was in a state of absolute hysteria.
Telephones rang continuously across three executive floors. Financial analysts scurried through the glass corridors with reams of balance sheets, while television monitors tuned to CNBC broadcast the unfolding disaster in bright red banners:
**BLACKWOOD HOLDINGS PLUNGES 42% IN PRE-MARKET TRADING AMID DEBT DEFAULT RUMORS.**
Inside Richard Blackwood's corner office, Victoria stood by the panoramic window, repeatedly dialing Daniel’s number.
*"The number you have dialed is currently unavailable or has been forwarded to voicemail..."*
"Pick up, Daniel! Pick up the damn phone!" she shrieked, slamming the iPhone against her palm.
Margaret was pacing behind Richard’s massive mahogany desk, her pearls bouncing against her chest. "Richard, this is an orchestrated hit! It has to be the Henderson Group or that European consortium trying to force a hostile takeover! You said Vanguard was a silent technology partner!"
"They were silent!" Richard roared, his face flushed crimson as he loosened his collar. "They’ve backed our operations for three years through an offshore holding trust! We never met the ultimate beneficial owner because their corporate governance structure is completely opaque! We only ever dealt with Elena Vance!"
Victoria walked over to her father's desk, her voice shaking. "Dad... what if it’s Daniel?"
Margaret stopped dead in her tracks, then threw her head back in a harsh, hysterical laugh. "Daniel? That boy whose father wears department-store polyester and smells of industrial machine oil? Victoria, have you completely lost your mind? Daniel is a project supervisor! He drives a four-year-old sedan!"
"He drove that car because he said he liked it!" Victoria protested, her fingernails digging into her palms. "What if he was lying? Remember last month when we were at the charity gala at the Met? The CEO of Goldman Sachs walked right up to Daniel and shook his hand, and Daniel brushed him off! I thought the man mistook him for someone else, but what if he didn't?"
"Don't be absurd!" Margaret snapped, though her eyes betrayed a sudden flicker of unease. "If that boy had money, he would have flaunted it! People from the gutter can never resist bragging when they strike gold. It's a coincidence! A sick, twisted coincidence!"
Jonathan Cole hurried back into the office, holding a tablet computer.
"Richard, I managed to get through to Elena Vance's executive assistant," Jonathan panted. "They won't speak on the phone. But they’ve granted Blackwood Holdings a ten-minute window at Vanguard Tower. Twelve-thirty sharp. If the Blackwood family isn't there in person to present their case, the board will vote to liquidate the collateral at one o'clock."
Richard grabbed his suit jacket from the coat rack, his hands trembling as he shoved his arms through the sleeves.
"Order the car," Richard barked. "Margaret, Victoria, you're coming with me. We are going to present a united family front. We will show these tech upstarts who the Blackwoods are."
"Yes," Margaret said, quickly reapplying her lipstick in a silver compact, trying to mask the fear trembling in her chin. "A family with two hundred years of heritage doesn't fall because of some anonymous hedge-fund bully."
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Victoria stared down at her bare left hand. An icy sensation settled in her stomach—a gut-wrenching intuition that the empire they were so proud of was about to crash directly into the man she had so casually discarded.
***
