Chapter 4 - The Vipers Starve
Across the city, the Laurent empire was burning to the ground.
Victoria Laurent paced furiously across her penthouse office, her phone glued to her ear. “What do you mean the accounts are frozen? By whose authority?!” She threw the phone against the wall, watching it shatter into a hundred pieces.
It had only been forty-eight hours since the wedding disaster, and Alexander’s wrath was swift and absolute. Royal decrees had silently severed all government contracts with Laurent Enterprises. International banks, terrified of angering the King, called in their massive loans. Investors vanished overnight. The billions Victoria had worshipped were evaporating into thin air.
“We are ruined,” her husband whimpered from the sofa, his head in his hands.
“Shut up!” Victoria hissed. But before she could formulate a plan, her private elevator chimed. The doors slid open, revealing Lady Elara, flanked by two heavily armed private guards.
Victoria’s eyes widened. “Lady Sterling? What is the meaning of this?”
Elara stepped into the office, looking around with sheer distaste. “You are losing your empire, Victoria. And I am losing my crown to that pathetic daughter of yours. You know her weaknesses. I know the palace’s blind spots. We share a common enemy.”
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Elara pulled a sealed envelope from her designer bag and tossed it onto Victoria’s mahogany desk. “I have a plan to destroy her before the coronation. But I need your resources to execute it. Are you ready to take back what is yours, or will you let a beggar rule us both?”
Victoria looked at the envelope, a wicked, desperate smile slowly creeping across her face. “Tell me everything.”
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