Chloe snatched the slip of paper, her heavy gold earrings swinging as she brought it close to her face. She expected a crude forgery, a piece of notebook paper with crayons, or perhaps a coupon. Instead, her eyes landed on the authentic watermarks, the authorized signatures, and the undeniable string of zeros printed across the amount line.
Pay to the order of Elara Vance: $10,000,000.00.
For a fraction of a second, doubt flickered behind Chloe's horn-rimmed glasses. But her ego, inflated by years of superficial judgments, immediately crushed it. This woman in sweatpants could not possibly possess ten million dollars. It shattered Chloe's entire worldview. Therefore, it had to be a fake.
"A ten million dollar check?" Chloe sneered, a cruel, self-satisfied smirk twisting her bright red lips. "Seriously? This has to be a joke."
With sudden, violent force, driven by a desperate need to assert her superiority, Chloe gripped both ends of the paper. Her red nails dug into the document. With a sharp, aggressive yank, she ripped the ten-million-dollar check straight down the middle. The sound of tearing paper was shockingly loud in the quiet bank. She let the torn halves flutter contemptuously onto the marble counter, crossing her arms over her red silk blouse in triumph.
Three floors above the grand lobby, sitting in an executive suite overlooking the banking floor, was Arthur Chen, the Regional Director. Arthur was a man who understood that true wealth rarely felt the need to announce itself. He was currently reviewing the morning's schedule, his eyes scanning the list of expected high-net-worth clients.