Chapter 17 - THE BOARDROOM TRAP
Three months later, the battle shifted from the mountain clinic to the corporate boardrooms of Manhattan.
Although Julian Vance was sitting in a federal detention center awaiting trial, his legal team attempted one final, desperate maneuver.
They filed an emergency petition in the New York Chancery Court to freeze the assets of the Carter-Bennett Center.
They claimed that the historical research records and patient registries held by the center contained trade secrets belonging to Apex Holdings’ corporate receivership.
If the court granted the injunction, our center would be forced to shut its doors, and hundreds of children currently receiving subsidized medication would lose access.
On a cold Thursday morning, an emergency hearing was convened inside the high-rise offices of the State Healthcare Compliance Board.
Julian Vance’s lead defense attorney, a ruthless Wall Street strategist named Richard Sterling, sat across the long mahogany conference table.
He folded his hands over a thick leather binder, giving us a condescending, arrogant smile.
“Mrs. Carter,” Sterling began smoothly.
“My clients are prepared to offer a private settlement.”
“If you surrender the original 1998 PROJECT MIRROR ledgers and agree to dissolve the Carter-Bennett Center’s public archive, Apex Receivership will establish a ten-million-dollar private trust for your daughters.”
I sat at the head of the table.
To my right sat Margaret Sloan.
To my left sat Lily and Maya, dressed in matching navy wool suits.
Behind us stood State Prosecutor Sarah Jenkins and Detective Grant.
I did not offer a counter-proposal.
I did not look at the settlement papers.
Instead, I reached into my briefcase and pulled out a small digital audio recorder.
I set it on the center of the table and pressed play.
The room filled with the crystal-clear, recorded voice of Julian Vance, captured by Swiss wiretaps forty-eight hours before his arrest:
“If the Carter woman gets near the Swiss records, destroy the secondary control group. We cannot allow those children to testify in an American courtroom. Let the cellular decay take them.”
Richard Sterling’s face turned ghastly pale.
His hands began to shake as he closed his leather binder.
“That recording was unsealed by the Federal District Court two hours ago, Mr. Sterling,” Prosecutor Jenkins announced coldly.
“And every attorney who attempts to conceal or suppress evidence related to Project Mirror is being named as an active co-conspirator under the federal RICO statute.”
Sterling stood up so fast his chair knocked against the wall.
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He looked at his assistant, grabbed his briefcase, and walked out of the boardroom without saying another word.
The trap had snapped shut.
