Chapter 4 - Cracks in the Empire
The morning after the gala, the offices of Montgomery Dynamics were in total chaos. The stock price had plummeted another eight percent within the first hour of trading, driven by rumors that Aegis Energy was planning a hostile takeover.
Nathan sat in his massive corner office, staring at a collection of old photographs of Madeline from their college days. He had kept them in a locked drawer, a secret shame he had refused to acknowledge. He remembered how she used to bring him coffee, how she would stay up until 3:00 AM fixing his poorly written business proposals. He had thought her love was an infinite resource, something he could throw away and replace with a larger bank account.
The door slammed open, and Vanessa stormed in, throwing a tabloid newspaper onto his desk. The front page featured a crystal-clear picture of Nathan staring down at Liam, Charlotte, Ethan, and Chloe at the gala. The headline screamed: MONTGOMERY'S FORGOTTEN HEIRS? EGIST CEO RETURNS WITH FOUR MINI-GENIUSES.
"You need to issue a denial immediately!" Vanessa screamed, her voice cracking with hysteria. "The board is panicking! They think these bastards have a legal claim to your shares!"
"Shut up, Vanessa!" Nathan roared, standing up so violently his chair crashed into the window behind him. "They are my children! Look at them! Anyone with eyes can see they are mine!"
"So what if they are?" Vanessa sneered, her mask completely slipping, revealing the ugly, desperate fraud beneath. "She’s here to ruin us! Do you think she came back to play happy family? She’s going to take everything, Nathan! If you don't fight her, I'll take my father's estate and leave you with nothing!"
Nathan let out a bitter, hollow laugh. "Your father's estate? You mean the empty accounts and the foreclosed properties in the Hamptons? I know, Vanessa. I've known for two years that you're broke. You lied to me. You traded a fake fifty million for a company that I destroyed to please you."
Vanessa froze, her face draining of color. "You... you knew?"
"Yes," Nathan whispered, suddenly looking exhausted, ten years older than he actually was. "But I was too proud to admit I made a mistake. I was too proud to admit I threw away gold for painted plastic."
Before Vanessa could respond, the office intercom buzzed. Nathan's secretary spoke, her voice trembling. "Mr. Montgomery... the representatives from Aegis Energy are here for the emergency board meeting. They... they brought their own legal counsel. And their tech team."
Nathan straightened his jacket, pushing past a stunned Vanessa. "Let them in."
When Nathan entered the boardroom, he expected to see Madeline. Instead, he found the four five-year-old children sitting in the high-backed leather executive chairs, surrounded by a team of high-powered, aggressive corporate attorneys.
Liam sat at the head of the table, a stack of financial documents in front of him. Charlotte had her laptop hooked up to the boardroom's main projection screen. Ethan was smiling at the elderly board members, who looked completely bewildered but strangely charmed. Chloe sat quietly, sketching something on a digital pad.
"Where is Madeline?" Nathan demanded, looking around the room.
"Our mother does not waste her time with preliminary restructuring meetings," Liam said, his voice calm, authoritative, and utterly terrifying coming from a child. "She has delegated the initial audit of Montgomery Dynamics to us."
"This is a joke," Vanessa hissed, entering the room behind Nathan. "You're children! You belong in a kindergarten, not a corporate boardroom! Nathan, call security!"
Charlotte didn't even look up from her laptop. With a sharp tap on her spacebar, the massive projection screen lit up.
"This is the personal offshore bank account of Vanessa Ashford Montgomery," Charlotte said, her voice sweet but deadly. "Located in the Cayman Islands. Over the past twenty-four months, she has systematically embezzled six point four million dollars from Montgomery Dynamics' employee pension fund to pay off her personal credit cards and jewelry leases."
The boardroom erupted into immediate, furious shouting. The board members stood up, pointing fingers, their faces purple with rage.
Vanessa staggered backward, her eyes wide with horror. "That's... that's a lie! That's illegal hacking!"
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"It's not a lie if it's true," Ethan said, flashing his perfect dimpled smile at the head of the board. "And as for the legality... we've already forwarded the encrypted ledger directly to the Southern District of New York's Federal Prosecutor. They should be arriving downstairs in about... five minutes."
Nathan stared at his children, a cold sweat breaking out across his forehead. They weren't just smart. They were an organized, highly efficient demolition crew. And they were looking at him like he was next.
