Chapter 2 : The Liquidation of Vane Asset Management
Chapter 2 : The Liquidation of Vane Asset Management
The dynamic paralysis holding the St. Jude Academy dining hall in place didn't break when Beatrice Vane was escorted out; it deepened. The slow, rhythmic thud-thud of her heavy designer boots dragging across the oak threshold faded into the hollow corridors, leaving a vacuum of pure, unadulterated terror in its wake.
The remaining students sat frozen, their hands hovering over porcelain plates, their lips firmly sealed.
Marcus, the towering head of security, did not offer a comforting word to the crowd. He stood at absolute attention beside Seraphina, his gloved fingers tapping the glass of his encrypted tablet. On the screen, live financial metrics were shifting in real-time.
"The isolation protocol is fully operational, Miss Seraphina," Marcus announced, his deep baritone cutting through the dead air with clinical precision. "Your father has authorized the immediate liquidation of the Vance Group’s capital allocations within Vane Asset Management. As of 12:18 PM, their primary liquidity lines have been completely severed."
A collective, sharp intake of breath rippled through the front row of legacy students. They understood the math. Vane Asset Management didn't just fund a wing of the campus; they survived entirely on the grace of the Vance Conglomerate’s institutional investments.
"They thought a scholarship jacket was a target," Seraphina said softly, her voice steady as she looked down at the spilled soup staining her uniform. "They forgot that my father built this academy to harvest brilliant minds, not to shelter arrogant portfolios."
"What happens to the western wing?" whispered a student from the back, a scholarship sophomore whose hands were visibly trembling.
May you like
Seraphina turned her analytical gaze toward the questioner. The vulnerable, cowering schoolgirl from moments ago was entirely gone, replaced by the unmistakable, cold heritage of an empire builder.
"The western wing will be closed for exactly twenty-four hours," Seraphina stated, her words dropping like iron weights. "By tomorrow morning, the Vane family name will be chiseled off the stone. It will be renamed the Sovereign Merit Pavilion, funded entirely by the newly seized assets of their former endowment."
