Chapter 6 - The Encounter
Clara stepped off the stage and was immediately swarmed by the city’s elite. Bankers who had ignored her for years now practically shoved each other out of the way to shake her hand. Wives of politicians complimented her dress. She handled them all with a gracious, practiced ease.
Then, the crowd parted.
Harrison stood before her. He looked physically ill. His bespoke suit suddenly looked cheap against the sheer weight of Clara’s newfound power. Vanessa hovered nervously behind his right shoulder; Eleanor was frozen behind his left.
"Clara," Harrison choked out, his voice barely a whisper. "What is this? How..."
Clara took a slow sip of her sparkling water, looking at him with the detached, clinical expression of a nurse evaluating a terminal patient.
"Hello, Harrison," Clara said mildly. "Enjoying the gala?"
"You're Phoenix Holdings," he breathed, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and disbelief. "You own the riverfront. You blocked my development."
"I did," Clara affirmed smoothly. "Beatrice left the estate to me. I decided commercial high-rises would ruin the aesthetic of the river. A legacy, I suppose you could say. You were always very big on building a legacy, weren't you?"
Vanessa stepped forward, her cool facade cracking. "This is a joke. You tricked him into that divorce settlement! You hid assets!"
Clara’s gaze snapped to Vanessa, cold and unyielding. "I hid nothing. The settlement your fiancé pushed on me included a mutual waiver of future claims. The ink was dry before Beatrice's will was executed. He wanted to ensure I couldn't touch his money. He just didn't realize he was signing away his right to touch mine."
Eleanor pushed her way to the front, her face pale. "Clara, be reasonable. We are family. You can't just destroy Harrison's firm out of spite."
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"Spite?" Clara laughed—a soft, melodic sound that sent shivers down Harrison's spine. "Eleanor, I am not doing this out of spite. I am simply doing business. And as Harrison so eloquently told me on our anniversary... I belong in a completely different class now."
Clara didn't wait for a response. She handed her empty glass to a passing waiter and turned her back on them, walking into the crowd, leaving the Trent family to choke on the ashes of their own arrogance.
