Chapter 3 - The Five-Minute Collapse
The incredibly massive, highly heavy, and completely suffocating silence inside the highly expensive, entirely opulent grand living room was absolutely, incredibly terrifying. Adrian stood completely frozen, his heavy leather belt hanging completely uselessly by his side, his highly arrogant, deeply handsome face contorted into a completely hilarious, highly pathetic mask of incredibly deep, entirely profound, and completely absolute confusion.
"Who in the absolute, complete hell did you just call, Clara?" Adrian aggressively demanded, desperately trying to quickly regain his highly dominant, incredibly fake alpha-male posture, completely entirely oblivious to the massive, highly destructive tsunami actively racing directly toward him.
Vanessa aggressively, highly obnoxiously rolled her heavily mascaraed, completely dark eyes and casually, highly elegantly crossed her long, completely bare legs in the expensive designer armchair. "Oh, please, Adrian, darling. She is obviously, entirely completely bluffing. Her highly pathetic, completely broke, entirely middle-class father probably works at a completely useless hardware store. What exactly is a poor, completely useless old man going to possibly do to a highly powerful corporate CEO like you?"
I incredibly slowly, highly painfully, and entirely deliberately completely pushed my heavily bruised, completely aching body entirely up from the incredibly cold, completely blood-stained white marble floor. I absolutely, completely ignored the highly excruciating, entirely blinding physical pain actively radiating through my heavily battered ribs and my deeply bruised face. I looked completely directly at the incredibly expensive, highly customized grandfather clock resting completely elegantly on the far side of the massive room.
Exactly, incredibly precisely five highly brief, incredibly short, and completely absolute minutes had completely passed since I explicitly, completely permanently ended the highly fateful, incredibly devastating phone call with my incredibly powerful father.
Suddenly, entirely completely without any highly prior, completely absolutely any warning whatsoever, Adrian's highly expensive, completely customized corporate smartphone violently, incredibly aggressively began to loudly, constantly ring inside the dark pocket of his tailored suit trousers.
He highly aggressively, entirely angrily pulled the vibrating, incredibly loud device from his pocket, his dark brow deeply, completely furrowing in highly intense annoyance as he actively read the completely urgent, highly demanding caller ID on the bright screen.
"It is the chief financial officer of my entire corporate board," Adrian highly muttered, incredibly nervously, completely unsure exactly why his highly superior executive would actively call him at this incredibly late hour of the night. He quickly swiped the screen to answer. "Yes, David, what exactly is the massive problem?"
I actively watched with absolute, complete, and entirely unadulterated, highly deeply satisfying pleasure as the entirely healthy, completely normal color completely, absolutely, and instantly entirely drained completely out of Adrian's highly arrogant, completely perfectly structured face.
"What do you absolutely mean our massive, primary institutional credit lines have been entirely, completely instantly frozen?!" Adrian violently, aggressively shouted into the mobile phone, his highly confident voice violently cracking with pure, completely undeniable, entirely absolute raw panic. "That is absolutely, completely entirely impossible! We just successfully secured completely massive, highly global institutional funding!"
He listened for exactly ten more incredibly long, highly agonizing seconds, his wide, completely terrified eyes darting incredibly frantically around the quiet room. "What massive parent holding company? Vanguard Sterling?! I have completely never even directly, actively spoken to anyone at Vanguard Sterling in my entire life!"
Before he could even actively, completely finish his highly frantic, completely desperate sentence, the incredibly expensive, highly modern smart-home system actively completely controlling the massive, highly sprawling luxury estate began to loudly, aggressively beep an incredibly continuous, highly sharp warning tone.
Vanessa entirely completely sat up completely straight in the expensive armchair, her highly smug, completely entirely triumphant smile finally, completely entirely evaporating completely into thin air. "Adrian, what exactly is happening with the security system?" she highly frantically, entirely nervously asked.
Another incredibly urgent, completely demanding call aggressively came directly through his active mobile phone. This specific time, it was his highly exclusive, completely private executive wealth manager at the incredibly prestigious major international banking institution.
"Adrian Vale," the private banker explicitly, highly coldly stated entirely through the loud speakerphone, completely devoid of his usual, highly obsequious, completely entirely polite customer-service tone. "I am completely, incredibly officially entirely notifying you that all of your personal, massive joint, and corporate offshore bank accounts have been explicitly, entirely legally seized and completely frozen by the federal regulatory authorities pending a massive, highly intensive criminal investigation completely initiated by the Sterling Global Corporate Trust."
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Adrian completely, utterly, and highly pathetically collapsed incredibly heavily directly onto the nearest expensive sofa, dropping his mobile phone directly onto the marble floor. He looked entirely directly at me, his completely terrified, highly incredibly wide eyes finally, completely entirely connecting the absolutely massive, highly devastating, and completely unavoidable dots.
"Sterling," he violently, completely entirely whispered, his entire, highly pathetic body shaking violently with complete, absolute, and unadulterated terror. "You... you are Clara Sterling."
