Chapter 6 - THE DEPOSITION
-6-
The private conference facility on the top floor of the Brooks Global tower was designed to project absolute power. The room featured floor-to-ceiling glass walls overlooking the entire metropolitan skyline, a massive dark oak conference table in the center, and a quiet, tense atmosphere that could intimidate even the most seasoned corporate executives.
At precisely nine o'clock on Thursday morning, the heavy double doors opened, and Dominic walked in, followed closely by his mother, Victoria, and his younger sister, Natalie.
They looked like a family walking toward a gallows.
Dominic’s designer suit now looked like it had been slept in for three consecutive days. His hair was tousled, his eyes bloodshot, and his posture slumped under the immense weight of impending ruin. Victoria looked equally shaken, her usually haughty expression replaced by a tight, nervous grimace. Natalie clung to her mother's arm, her eyes darting around the room as though looking for an escape hatch.
They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw who was sitting at the head of the conference table.
It wasn't just Marcus Vance and our legal team.
Sitting directly opposite the vacant chairs, flanked by two corporate security guards and my father Charles Brooks, was me.
I was dressed in a tailored charcoal-gray cashmere pantsuit, my hair styled in sleek waves, my posture upright and commanding. I looked every bit the sole heir and executive board member of Brooks Global Corporation.
Dominic stared at me, his jaw slack, his brain struggling to process the impossible visual before him. "Audrey... what is... what are you doing here? This is a corporate deposition for Vance Technologies!"
"Sit down, Mr. Vance," Marcus instructed sharply, pointing to the empty chairs across the table.
Trembling slightly, Dominic pulled out a chair and sat down. Victoria and Natalie hurriedly took seats beside him, their eyes wide with confusion and rising panic.
"Before we begin," Marcus began, opening his leather portfolio and sliding three identical folders across the mahogany table toward them, "let us establish identities and legal representation for the record. For the past two years, Mr. Dominic Vance operated under the assumption that his wife, Audrey, was an ordinary woman of modest means. As of this morning, federal investigators, forensic auditors, and civil attorneys have established that Audrey Vance is, in fact, Audrey Brooks—sole heir and executive board member of Brooks Global Corporation."
The words hit the room like a physical blow.
Dominic’s head snapped toward me, his eyes bulging in utter disbelief. "What? No... that's impossible! Your father is a small-town contractor! You grew up in a normal suburb! You—you told me—"
"I never told you anything of the sort, Dominic," I interrupted, my voice calm, clear, and utterly devoid of emotion. "You simply made assumptions because it flattered your ego to believe you had married someone beneath you, someone whose sole purpose was to validate your fragile self-image as a self-made titan."
Victoria clutched her pearls, her face turning pale. "Wait a minute! Are you saying... all those venture capital investments... the multi-million-dollar funding rounds... the contracts..."
"Were approved solely because I instructed our investment committee to keep you afloat," my father cut in, his deep, resonant voice cutting through the silence like a razor blade. "If my daughter hadn't asked me to humor your son's pathetic little startup eighteen months ago, Vance Technologies wouldn't have survived its first month in a suburban garage."
Natalie gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "You're lying! Dominic is a genius! He built this company on his own merit!"
"He built a house of cards on top of stolen foundation stones," Marcus corrected smoothly, flipping open one of the forensic audit reports. "Which brings us to the primary purpose of this deposition. In addition to breaching multiple clauses of your prenuptial agreement, Mr. Vance, our forensic auditors have uncovered systematic corporate embezzlement, wire fraud, and illegal money laundering totaling over four million dollars in venture capital funds."
Dominic turned the color of ash. "That's—that's R&D capital! That's corporate expenses!"
"Really?" Marcus raised an eyebrow, pulling out a set of bank transfer receipts and tossing them onto the table. "Is that why two million of those dollars were funneled through an offshore account in the Cayman Islands directly to a luxury apartment leased under the name of Chloe Mendez? And why another million was transferred to personal accounts registered under Victoria Vance to purchase real estate in Florida?"
Victoria let out a sharp, horrified shriek. "Dominic! You used my name for illegal offshore accounts?!"
"Mom, shut up!" Dominic snapped, his face contorting with panic as he tried to grab the documents off the table, only for our security guards to step forward and place their hands firmly on the back of his chair.
"You are all co-conspirators in federal felony wire fraud and corporate embezzlement," Marcus stated flatly, closing his portfolio with a crisp snap. "The evidence has already been compiled and delivered to the federal prosecutor's office. Unless you agree to immediate, unconditional surrender of all remaining corporate assets, intellectual property, personal properties, and sign an immediate, uncontested divorce settlement waiving all future claims, federal marshals will execute arrest warrants for Dominic and Victoria Vance before the end of the day."
The room plunged into an absolute, suffocating silence.
May you like
Dominic looked around the table—at the cold, unyielding gaze of my father, at the calm, indifferent expression on my face, and finally at his mother and sister, who were staring at him in sheer terror and betrayal.
The brilliant entrepreneur, the visionary tech titan, the man who had ordered his exhausted wife to take a city bus home with a newborn baby because she was "inconvenient," sat collapsed in his chair, utterly destroyed.
