Chapter 12: The Fall of Cassandra
By noon on Friday, as the stock market opened for the final trading session of the week, the federal indictments dropped like a sledgehammer.
Federal agents executed simultaneous search warrants at Vane Tower and the Kensington Estate. Television crews broadcasted live images of FBI agents carrying boxes of files out of the glass lobby Julian had designed.
Cassandra was arrested in the executive suite just minutes before the Apex merger contracts were scheduled to be signed. As she was led out in handcuffs past a sea of news cameras, she caught sight of Julian standing on the public sidewalk across the street.
"You destroyed us!" she screamed through the noise of flashing cameras and shouting reporters. "You burned down everything we built!"
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Julian watched her as she was loaded into the back of a federal vehicle. He felt no triumph, no spite—only a profound, solemn stillness.
"We didn't build it, Cassandra," he said quietly to the wind. "We just lived in the house he burned down."
