Chapter 5 - The Stolen Empire
The news anchor gravely announced that the FBI had just raided the headquarters of Mercer Holdings.
Vance and Julian had officially submitted fabricated evidence framing me for the international trafficking ring.
The federal government had already frozen all of my personal assets and seized my corporate properties.
I was now considered a highly dangerous fugitive wanted for massive federal crimes.
I stared at the glowing screen as the reality of my complete ruin washed over me.
Julian had not just stolen my money and my reputation.
He had effectively weaponized the entire justice system to hunt me down.
I threw the compromised cell phone onto the train tracks and crushed it beneath the heel of my boot.
We spent the next three hours navigating the abandoned service tunnels to reach a run down motel in Queens.
I paid for the filthy room using a small stack of emergency cash I always kept hidden in my coat.
Marco rested on a broken chair while Elena sat exhausted on the edge of a stained mattress.
I paced across the worn carpet and desperately tried to formulate a plan to strike back.
I needed untraceable money to hire a private army capable of destroying Julian.
Elena quietly reached into her pocket and pulled out a small electronic storage drive.
She explained that she had downloaded Vance’s offshore banking codes before the divorce.
She handed me the drive and said that it contained over fifty million dollars in stolen corporate funds.
I plugged the drive into a stolen laptop that Marco had acquired from a contact.
I entered the decryption sequence hoping to secure the funds for our counterattack.
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The screen flashed bright red and displayed a live video feed instead of a banking ledger.
Julian was sitting in a dark room holding a silver pistol against the head of my mother.
