All Chapters of UNMASKED: The Heiress' Cold Revenge : Chapter 11 - Chapter 19

19 Chapters

Chapter 11: The Debt Collector

The lobby of Sterling Global was a cathedral of glass and silent power. Julian stood by the reception desk, his breath hitching. His credit cards had been declined at the parking garage, and his phone was persistently vibrating with a final, desperate warning from the Thorne Group’s board of directors, the Vance and other associates.Feeling helpless, he looked out of place in the pristine environment. His usually crystal clear eyes were now bloodshot, his shirt was wrinkled, and his movements were erratic. He looked like a man who had been running all his life.When the elevator finally opened on the 80th floor, he didn't see Theo Sterling at first. All he saw was Elena.She was standing by a floor-to-ceiling window with a tablet in her hand. She was dressed in a white silk suit that made her look sharp and untouchable. Theo was at his desk, his expression was unreadable as he watched the visibly miserable Julian as if he were a bug under a microscope. The office was quiet, save for

Chapter 12: The Gilded Fall

THE HEIRESS' COLD REVENGE The Vance family estate in Greenwich was dead silent until Sarah’s car screeched into the driveway. She didn’t wait for the valet; she slammed the door and marched into the marble foyer, her face flushed and her breathing heavy."Dad!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the high ceilings. Arthur Vance stepped out of the study, a glass of amber liquid in his hand. He didn't look like a comforting father. He looked like a man who had just watched his net worth evaporate. He didn't move to hug her. He stayed behind the heavy oak desk, his eyes cold."Why are you screaming about the whole place, Sarah? Don't you have better things to attend to?" Sarah didn't pay attention to what her father was saying, instead, she hit the jail on the head. "You need to tell me everything that I need to know!" "Ok?" Arthur indifferently replied."Julian is being ridiculous! He said the accounts are frozen. He said we have to move out of the penthouse by midnight!""He has to

Chapter 13: The Plastic Ghost

The automatic doors of the St. Regis hissed open, welcoming Julian into the familiar scent of expensive lilies and floor wax. He didn't look like a man who belonged there anymore. His tie was gone, his shirt was damp with sweat, and he was carrying a single leather duffel bag he had managed to throw together at the last minute before the movers changed the locks on the penthouse.He approached the reception desk, trying to summon the phantom of his former authority. "My name is Julian Thorne. I have a standing suite."The receptionist, a young woman who had checked him in dozens of times for lunch meetings, didn't smile. She looked at his disheveled state, then at her screen. "Of course, Mr. Thorne. All I need is a card for the incidental hold."Julian pulled out his black metal card, the one that had never once met a limit. He slid it across the marble counter with a flick of his wrist.The machine chimed, letting out a short, harsh beep.

Chapter 14: The Final Lock

THE HEIRESS'S COLD REVENGEThe taxi Julian boarded dropped him off three blocks away from Sarah’s old apartment because he only had enough loose change in his pocket to cover the fare that far. He had to walk the rest of the way, his designer shoes were now scuffed and his pride, a jagged ruin. As he walked, he could not help but bury his head in shame. He had been the same one who had drove luxurious cars into the estate, but now, he was trekking and staggering like a drunk in the place he had once visited in secret to bring Sarah expensive gifts. Now, it was his only hope for a roof over his head.Eventually getting to the modest brick walk-up house, he stopped by the front stoop and fumbled for the spare key Sarah had given him months ago. He jammed it into the lock, twisting with desperate force and frustration.It didn't turn.He tried again, this time, his breath was coming in ragged gasps. He kicked the door once, twice, the sound echoing through the quiet street. "Sarah! Open

Chapter 15: The Lion’s Den

THE HEIRESS' COLD REVENGE The boardroom was ready, but Elena wasn't. Instead of heading to the 80th floor of the Sterling tower like everyone had expected, she took a black car to a gated estate on the outskirts of the city: the Blackwood's ancestral home. It was a place built from heavy stones and even heavier secrets.Her grandfather, Silas Blackwood, sat in a library that had thousands of old books nearly arranged on shelves and cold ambition. He didn't look like a man proud of his granddaughter; he looked like a king assessing a potential traitor. On the desk between them sat a small, velvet-lined box and inside it was the Blackwood Seal, the physical key to the family’s untraceable offshore holdings and the final word in any Thorne Group takeover."You want me to just hand this over to you?" Silas asked, his voice like gravel. "For three years, you let that boy, that incompetent imbecile, Julian treat you like a servan

Chapter 16: The Hostile Takeover

THE HEIRESS' COLD REVENGE The boardroom of the Thorne Group had always been Julian’s stage, but today, the atmosphere said otherwise.Eleven men sat around the long mahogany table in the room, their eyes darting between Julian and the door. The digital ticker on the wall showed the company’s stock in a steady, crimson decline."He is ten minutes late, Julian," Arthur Vance muttered, checking his gold watch for the third time. "Julian, if this investor of yours is a no-show, the banks will trigger the margin calls before the markets close. We will be insolvent by morning and I will skin you alive for wasting my time and for the ridicule."Julian adjusted his cufflinks, though his fingers were cold. "It is no news that investors like to make an entrance, Arthur. Sit down. I have told you that this will work, we have the leverage of the upcoming merger. No one buys forty percent of a company unless they intend to

Chapter 17: The Fall of a Titan

THE HEIRESS' COLD REVENGE The walk from the boardroom to the elevator was less than a two minutes walk, but to Julian, it felt like a thousand years under a spotlight. Theo had two men from his security team follow exactly three paces behind him: not as a courtesy, but as vacuums.When the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, the quiet on the executive levels was replaced by a truckload of noise. The lobby was swarming with reporters. News of the hostile takeover had traveled faster than the elevator."Julian!" "Talk to us." "Is it true the Blackwood Trust has seized your personal assets?" a reporter from a financial news outlet shouted, shoving a microphone in his face."Mr. Thorne, how do you respond to the allegations of shell company fraud?" another screamed."Have you actually been overthrown or are these just rumors?" "How did you marry the Blackwood's heiress and not mak

Chapter 18: The Pawned Legacy

THE HEIRESS' COLD REVENGE Julian walked for nearly two hours before he found a pawn shop that was still open. The sign on the window flickered with a dull neon hum, casting a blue light over the cracked pavement. His coat was damp, and his shoes that were once polished to a mirror shine, were now caked with a layer of grey city grime from his ordeal.He stepped inside. The shop was small and it smelled of old dust and cold metal. Behind a thick layer of scratched plexiglass stood a man with a grey beard and a magnifying loupe around his neck looked up from a tray of silver coins."How can I help you?" the man asked, in a flat tone.Julian didn't speak immediately. Instead he reached for his left wrist and unbuckled the Patek Philippe. The weight of the watch felt significant in his hand, it was a piece of engineering that cost more than a high-end luxury sedan. He slid it through the small opening at the bottom of the glass."I need to liquidate this," Julian said. He tried to keep

Chapter 19: The Cold Reality

THE HEIRESS' COLD REVENGE The municipal intake center was as cold as the outside world. It smelled of cheap bleach and the sharp, metallic scent of rain on hot asphalt. As usual, Julian stood on a line that snaked around the corner to sign into the facility, his expensive wool coat now a heavy, sodden weight on his shoulders. Every few minutes, the line shuffled forward an inch.He kept his head down, staring at the dry and breaking heels of the man in front of him. This was a world of forced patience. No one cared who he was, no one liked at him twice: here, he was just another body waiting for a bed and a plastic bowl of soup.Across town, the environment was the polar opposite. Elena sat in her new office, the one that used to be Julian’s: right at the top of the Thorne-Blackwood tower. The mahogany desk had been replaced with a slab of polished black granite. Theo stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a tablet i

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