Reclaiming Back My Empire

The Debt Is Due

The beautiful orchestra music stopped instantly, and a heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the five hundred elite guests inside the grand ballroom.

Nobody dared to move, and nobody dared to breathe. Every single eye was glued to the doorway as Derek Ashford stepped completely across the threshold.

CRACK.

A wealthy woman in the front row gasped loudly, her hand shaking so hard that her crystal glass slipped and shattered on the ground.

"No... it cannot be," a billionaire senator whispered, his face turning completely white. "He is dead. We all saw the news reports."

The media cameras instinctively pivoted away from the stage, their bright lenses turning toward the back of the room. The rapid flashes went off like a wild storm of lightning.

The bright light fully illuminated the rugged, intense scar that tracked all the way along Derek's jawline. His face looked hard, but it was his eyes that truly terrified the crowd.

More glasses hit the floor, breaking into tiny pieces as people finally recognized the unmistakable face of the dead tycoon.

"Is that a ghost?" a young woman cried out, grabbing her husband's arm in total fear. "Look at his face! It is really him!"

Derek walked straight down the center aisle.

A group of security guards tried to step forward to block his path, but Derek simply turned his head and looked at them. His terrifying gaze stopped them dead in their tracks.

The guards froze like statues, their bodies completely paralyzed by his presence. Derek bypassed the security team easily, and walked until he reached the front of the room.

Then, he calmly ascended the wooden stage steps, his eyes locked entirely on his younger brother.

Raymond’s eyes popped wide open, and his knees began to shake so violently that he had to grip the side of the wooden podium just to stay standing.

"D-Derek...?" Raymond choked out, his voice squeaking like a scared child. "You... you are supposed to be..."

Right next to him, Vanessa let out a choked, breathless scream that echoed off the high ceiling. Her face turned as pale as a bedsheet, and her fingers completely lost their strength.

Her wine glass slipped right out of her hand. The dark red liquid splashed heavily across her white silk designer gown, staining the fine fabric until it looked exactly like blood.

"No! Stay away from me!" Vanessa shrieked, scrambling backward on her high heels until her back hit the giant projector screen. "You are dead! You died in the plane crash!"

Derek stepped right up to the central podium, and reached out his calloused hand. With a smooth, sudden jerk, he removed the microphone right out of Raymond’s stiff, trembling fingers.

Raymond stumbled backward, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, but no sound came out of his throat.

Derek turned slowly to face the massive crowd and the flashing television cameras. He adjusted the microphone, his posture tall and completely dominant under the bright stage lights.

When he spoke, his deep voice boomed through the sound system, sounding crystal clear and completely devoid of any fear.

"Good evening, everyone," Derek said, his words echoing into every single corner of the giant ballroom. "I apologize to you all for my delay tonight."

The crowd remained completely silent, hanging onto every syllable as the media people watched their live feeds go completely wild.

"The weather over the Smoky Mountains was quite rough sixty days ago," Derek continued, his lips curling into a cold, cruel smile. "But it takes much more than a little storm to destroy what I built with my own hands."

"Guards! Security! What are you doing?!" Raymond suddenly screamed at the top of his voice, his voice full of panic as he tried to find his courage. "He is an impostor!. He is a fraud who stole my brother's face!. Call the police right now and lock him up!"

Vanessa rushed forward, her hands shaking wildly as she pointed a finger at Derek. "He is a liar!. Do not believe him!. My husband died in a plane crash!. This man is just trying to steal our company!"

Derek did not flinch, and he did not even look back at them. He kept his eyes fixed on the cameras, completely ignoring their shouts and threats.

He raised his left hand very slowly and gave a sharp signal toward the glass tech booth at the top of the ballroom wall. James Vance was sitting inside the booth, a wide, victorious smile on his face as he hit a large button on the computer console.

The giant projector screen behind the stage shifted instantly. The golden-bordered memorial portrait of Derek vanished from view in a fraction of a second.

In its place, a massive, official federal document appeared in bold black and white letters for the entire room to see.

"Look at the screen, Raymond," Derek said softly into the microphone.

The document displayed a legally binding biometric survival verification, stamped and certified by the federal government. Right next to it was a temporary freezing order of every single asset belonging to the Ashford Group, signed by a high court judge exactly one hour prior.

"This is impossible!" Raymond yelled, running toward the screen, his eyes scanning the legal stamps. "I am the CEO!I control the bank accounts! This cannot be real!"

"As of sixty minutes ago, your inheritance is completely null and void," Derek announced calmly to the room. “You do not own a single cent of this company."

The grand ballroom erupted into total, chaotic shouting in an instant. Billionaires began screaming at each other, shareholders started panicking about their stock values, and the media reporters rushed the stage with their cameras flashing rapidly.

"Is the company ruined?" a wealthy investor shouted. "What happens to our money now?"

Suddenly, the heavy back doors opened again, and a large squad of police officers arrived in their dark uniforms.

The officers walked right past Derek and formed a tight barrier around Raymond and Vanessa, pushing the angry shareholders and reporters back to prevent a full riot from breaking out on the stage.

Derek turned his body around slowly. He stepped away from the podium and walked over to his trembling brother and his terrified wife, his heavy shoes clicking softly on the wooden stage floor.

The police officers kept the crowd away, but they allowed Derek to step right up to Raymond and Vanessa. He leaned his body down, dropping his head so that his mouth was just inches away from their ears.

He looked directly into Vanessa’s wide, terrified eyes, his gaze locking on hers.

"Thanks so much for showing me your true colors," Derek whispered with a dark smile.

Vanessa gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as she remembered the exact video call from the freezing cockpit of the plane. She wanted to speak, she wanted to beg, but her tongue was completely frozen by fear.

Raymond stared at his older brother, his body shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"Derek, please... we are blood brothers," Raymond whimpered under his breath, his eyes filling with tears and fear. "Do not do this to me in front of the whole city."

Derek did not even answer his pathetic plea, or give them another single glance. He turned his back on them completely, and walked smoothly off the stage.