Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Ambush
At 8:00 AM the following morning, the executive boardroom on the fiftieth floor of the Roberts Global Tower was filled with high-ranking board members and wealthy corporate investors.
Julian Roberts sat at the head of the mahogany conference table, wearing a bespoke Italian suit, sipping espresso while adjusting his gold cufflinks.
"As you all know," Julian announced smoothly to the room, "my stepbrother, David, has been absent for the last twelve hours due to... personal distractions. Therefore, as vice-chairman, I am calling an emergency vote to approve the immediate demolition of the 4th Street industrial sector."
"On what authority, Julian?" a senior board member asked. "David strictly ordered a environmental audit before any demolition could begin."
"David is soft," Julian sneered, setting his cup down. "He lets sentimentality cloud corporate growth. That land is worth forty million dollars once cleared. I have the legal power of attorney documents right here—"
The heavy double doors of the boardroom burst open with a loud thud.
David Roberts walked into the room.
He wasn't wearing his usual tailor-made suit. He wore a simple black sweater, dark jeans, and heavy work boots. His hands were bandaged from the burns he had suffered the night before, and his face was set in stone.
The entire boardroom fell dead silent.
Julian stood up, a nervous twitch appearing near his left eye. "David... what is the meaning of this? You look like you've been in a street fight."
"I was in a fire, Julian," David said, his voice echoing with absolute authority as he walked slowly down the length of the long table. "A fire you started at the old laundry facility last night."
The board members gasped, looking between the two brothers in shock.
"That's absurd!" Julian scoffed, turning to the board. "He's lost his mind! He's making wild accusations without proof!"
David pulled a heavy steel flash drive from his pocket and tossed it onto the glass center of the table.
"On that drive," David said calmly, "is forty-eight hours of high-definition security footage from the camera installed on my personal vehicle, which was parked two blocks away from the laundry building last night. It shows your private vehicle entering the alley at 11:15 PM, your driver pouring accelerant on the wooden frame, and you lighting the match."
Julian's face turned completely white. He took a step back toward the floor-to-ceiling windows.
"Furthermore," David continued, stepping closer to Julian, "that building was occupied by my sister, Claire Roberts, and her two children—the legitimate heirs to fifty percent of this company's voting shares, which you claimed were lost when she disappeared four years ago."
"She... she was supposed to stay gone!" Julian shouted, losing his composure entirely as panic took over. "She ruined the merger four years ago! Father left everything to us!"
"Father left fifty percent to Claire," David said coldly. "And you hid her financial trusts, forged her death certificate, and tried to burn her alive when she returned to the city to find help for her starving children."
Two uniformed city police detectives stepped through the boardroom doors, holding official federal arrest warrants.
"Julian Roberts," the lead detective announced, pulling out steel handcuffs. "You are under arrest for attempted murder, arson, and corporate fraud."
Julian backed away, his eyes darting frantically around the room, but two security guards stepped behind him, blocking the exit.
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As the officers pinned Julian's arms behind his back and clicked the handcuffs onto his wrists, David leaned in, speaking quietly into his stepbrother's ear.
"You took everything from a mother and two small children for four years," David whispered. "Now you're going to give back every single day in a federal cell."
