Chapter 3 - The First Move
The apartment in Tribeca was a sprawling, minimalist penthouse that looked out over the Hudson River. It was filled with soft gold lighting, white marble floors, and floor-to-ceiling windows that captured the gray twilight of the city. A fire crackled in a sleek, modern hearth, instantly chasing away the chill from Grace’s bones.
"Marcus Hale has already filed the defamation suit," Daniel said, standing by the window with his hands clasped behind his back. "By tomorrow morning, the Park family legal team will receive a summons that will stop their morning breakfast from digesting."
Grace sat on the immense cream sofa, holding a warm cup of tea a housekeeper had brought her. "What exactly are we suing for, Daniel? I don't want their money. I told them that in the courthouse."
"We aren't suing for money, Grace. We are suing for discovery," a voice called out from the foyer.
Marcus Hale walked into the living room, carrying a heavy leather briefcase. He looked completely different from the tired lawyers Grace was used to seeing; he radiated the sharp, aggressive confidence of a apex predator in a courtroom.
"Discovery?" Grace repeated.
"The Park family claims you stole company secrets and engaged in financial manipulation during your time at Park Meridian," Marcus explained, sitting across from her. "By filing a multi-million-dollar defamation suit, we are forcing them to prove those claims in court. Which means they have to open their financial books to our forensic accountants to show the 'damages' you allegedly caused."
Marcus smiled, a cold, sharp expression. "And trust me, the last thing Park Meridian Group wants is a forensic team hired by Daniel Seo looking through their offshore accounts."
"But what about the articles?" Grace asked, her phone still vibrating occasionally with hateful alerts. "The internet still thinks I'm a monster."
"Look at your phone now, Miss Bennett," Marcus said.
Grace reluctantly pulled out her device and opened the main news site that had run the initial hit piece. Her breath hitched. The article was gone. In its place was a massive, formal retraction statement from the editor-in-chief, apologizing unreservedly to Grace Bennett for publishing unverified, malicious rumors from anonymous sources.
"How did you do that so fast?" she whispered, looking up at Daniel.
"The owner of that media network has a major casino debt in Atlantic City that was recently bought by one of my holding companies," Daniel said without turning around from the window. "He was very cooperative when I suggested that running lies about you was bad for his financial health."
Meanwhile, uptown at the Park Meridian corporate headquarters, the atmosphere was far from calm.
Ethan Park sat in his massive corner office, staring at the legal summons on his glass desk. His face was pale, his tie loosened. Across from him, his mother, Mrs. Park, was pacing the floor, her Chanel jacket discarded on a chair, her face twisted in a mixture of rage and disbelief.
"How is this possible?" Mrs. Park hissed, slamming her diamond-ringed hand onto the desk. "She was broke! She signed the waiver! Who gave her Marcus Hale? That man charges ten thousand dollars an hour just to answer the phone!"
"It's not just Hale, Mother," Ethan said, his voice shaking as he looked at a secondary report from his head of security. "The civil suit is backed by an investment fund called Crimson Crest. I ran a check on the fund's registration. It's a front."
Mrs. Park stopped pacing. "A front for who?"
Ethan looked up, fear evident in his eyes for the first time in his privileged life. "Daniel Seo."
The name seemed to drop the temperature in the room by ten degrees. Mrs. Park’s breath caught. "The... the man from the Queens underworld? Why would he involve himself with a worthless girl like Grace?"
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"I don't know," Ethan said, slamming his laptop shut. "But he just pulled all our concrete permits for the Hudson Yards project. The unions walked off the site an hour ago. We're losing two million dollars a day, Mother. And if we don't settle this defamation suit by Friday, Hale is going to subpoena our international tax records."
Mrs. Park’s jaw tightened, her eyes flashing with venom. "She thinks she found a protector? She thinks she can threaten us? Call the family attorneys. We don't settle with street thugs. If Daniel Seo wants a war, we will remind him why the Park family has ruled this city's real estate for three generations."
