Chapter 10 - Ashes and Mirrors
Three days later.
Snow blanketed the trees in Central Park. Emma stood at the overlook, staring out at the city skyline. Next to her, a hot coffee steamed in the freezing air.
Richard Carter was back in federal custody, denied bail following the new charges of document forgery and money laundering. His empire had definitively crumbled to dust. Victoria had rented a tiny apartment in New Jersey using the meager alimony her lawyers managed to salvage, while Julian had left the city entirely, utterly broken by the stigma of his betrayal, hoping to start over somewhere else.
Emma's phone buzzed in her pocket. A banking notification.
The grandfather's trust had been provisionally unfrozen by court order. A multi-million dollar sum had just been wired into her account. She was set for life. She finally had the freedom she had always craved. The lie had been blown to pieces.
Footsteps crunched in the snow behind her. Emma didn't turn around.
"It was a masterstroke, I have to admit," a female voice said from behind her. It wasn't Victoria. It was a younger, elegant, drawling voice that Emma hadn't heard in years.
Emma slowly turned around. Standing in front of her was a woman wearing a white mink coat, dark sunglasses despite the overcast sky, and an enigmatic smile.
"Sora?" Emma asked, thrown entirely off guard. "I thought you were in London."
"I came back the second I heard my father was put in pretrial detention," Sora replied, slowly pulling off her sunglasses to reveal eyes disturbingly similar to Emma's. "Dad made a lot of mistakes, but stipulating in his secret will that the company would go to whichever daughter managed to destroy him first... wasn't one of them."
Emma froze.
"What are you talking about?"
May you like
Sora pulled a document from her purse, signed by Richard Carter himself three weeks prior to his arrest and stamped by a Geneva notary.
"Congratulations, stepsister," Sora smirked, taking a step closer. "You passed the entrance exam for Carter Holdings. Now tell us... what are you going to do with the rest of the family you didn't even know existed?"
