Chapter 4 - The Threat from the Tower
Julian pressed the speaker button on his phone and set it back on the table.
"Julian!" Arthur Montgomery’s booming, arrogant voice exploded into the room. "What the hell is the meaning of this? My daughter just arrived at my penthouse in tears, hysterical! She says your mother humiliated her, insulted her family, and threw her out on the street like garbage!"
Julian took a deep breath, keeping his voice strictly controlled. "Arthur. That is not what happened."
"Don't you dare take that tone with me, young man!" Arthur barked through the phone. "Chloe told me everything! She said your mother hired some low-class temp agency worker to spy on her, staged a ridiculous argument in the foyer, and then tried to blame Chloe for an accident with a cleaning bucket!"
I shook my head slowly in disbelief. Chloe had already spun her web of lies, twisting the truth just enough to make herself look like the victim of a paranoid, controlling mother-in-law.
"It wasn't an accident, Arthur," Julian said coldly. "And it wasn't a temp worker."
"I don't care if it was the Queen of England!" Arthur shouted back. "My family has a reputation in this city! The wedding is in twenty-one days! Every major business leader, politician, and media outlet in the state has received an invitation! Do you have any idea how much money I’ve put into this union?"
"This isn't about money, Arthur," Julian replied. "Your daughter physically assaulted my mother."
There was a brief pause on the line, followed by a loud, dismissive scoff from Arthur Montgomery.
"Assaulted her? Don't be ridiculous! Chloe is a refined young woman! So she spilled some water during a heated argument—big deal! Your mother has been against this marriage from day one because she's afraid of losing control over you!"
"Arthur," Julian’s voice turned dangerously quiet. "My mother was the woman in the uniform. Chloe threw dirty water over my mother's head."
A heavy, sudden silence fell over the phone line. For three long seconds, Arthur Montgomery didn't say a word.
When he finally spoke again, his voice had lost its loud anger, replacing it with a icy, calculating threat.
"Listen to me very carefully, Julian," Arthur said softly. "My daughter’s reputation will not be tarnished by your mother’s bizarre, twisted psychological games. If you try to cancel this wedding, or if a single word of these ridiculous accusations leaves this house, I will ruin you."
"Is that a threat, Arthur?" Julian asked.
"It’s a promise," Arthur sneered. "I hold three major contracts with Vance Enterprises. My legal team will file breach of contract suits by tomorrow morning. I will leak to every gossip columnist in the country that Eleanor Vance is losing her mind, abusing staff, and driving her son's fiancée away out of senile jealousy. You will be the laughingstock of high society."
Julian looked up at me, his eyes wide with anger.
I gave him a calm, reassuring smile, nodding for him to continue.
"What do you want, Arthur?" Julian asked.
"You will apologize to Chloe," Arthur demanded coldly. "You will make your mother issue a public apology to my daughter at a press conference on Monday. And the wedding will proceed as scheduled in three weeks. If you do that, our business partnerships remain intact. If you don't... I will destroy Vance Enterprises before the month is over."
Click.
Arthur hung up the phone without waiting for a reply.
Julian stared at the black phone screen, his hands shaking with absolute fury. "The nerve of that man! He knows Chloe is guilty, and he's still trying to blackmail us into a marriage!"
"Arthur Montgomery doesn't care about truth, Julian," I said, standing up from the sofa and walking over to the window looking out at the dark estate grounds. "He cares about power and public image. He needs this marriage to boost his standing, and he thinks he can bully us into submission."
"What do we do now, Mom?" Julian asked, standing up beside me. "Do we release the audio recording to the press right now?"
"No," I replied, turning to look at my son with a calm, dangerous confidence. "If we release it now, Arthur’s lawyers will claim it's edited or obtained illegally. They will spin it in the media for weeks."
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"Then what's the plan?"
"We let Arthur and Chloe think their threat worked," I smiled faintly. "We let them believe we are terrified of their public scandal. We let them plan their grand press conference for Monday... and then we will give the Montgomery family a lesson in true power they will never forget."
