Chapter 5 - The Mistress
The woman’s chilling voice echoed softly through my phone speaker.
Her name was Chloe, and she had just confirmed that she was nowhere near the beaches of Maui.
“You are bluffing,” I said, keeping my voice low so the guard outside the vault wouldn’t hear.
“Am I?” Chloe laughed darkly.
“I am currently looking at the silver sedan you parked illegally on fifth street.”
I felt a cold wave of genuine panic wash over me.
She had tracked my car using the GPS system Julian had installed months ago under the guise of an insurance discount.
“What do you want, Chloe?” I demanded, rapidly stuffing the legal documents into my canvas bag.
“I want the fifty million dollars that rightfully belongs to my family,” she replied smoothly.
I paused, my hand hovering over the heavy metal lockbox.
“Your family?” I asked, completely confused by her arrogant claim.
“Julian’s real father was a powerful man who left behind a massive, hidden empire,” Chloe explained.
“I am Julian’s biological half-sister, and I was hired to recover the money Eleanor stole from our father.”
The ultimate, horrifying truth finally clicked into place.
Chloe was never just a random woman Julian met at a fancy hotel bar.
She was a highly trained corporate spy sent to infiltrate his life and manipulate him into finding Eleanor’s hidden fortune.
Julian thought he was having a passionate, secret affair in Hawaii.
In reality, he was being played by a dangerous woman who shared his corrupted bloodline.
“Julian has absolutely no idea who you really are, does he?” I whispered, realizing the depth of her deception.
“Julian is a pathetic, arrogant fool who thinks with his ego,” Chloe sneered.
“He is currently flying back to the city because I told him you were trying to empty his personal checking accounts.”
I yanked the black flash drive from the computer terminal and zipped my bag tightly closed.
“You are never getting this money,” I promised her.
“I have armed men surrounding the exits of your building, Sarah,” Chloe warned.
“If you walk out of that lobby with those documents, you will be shot dead on the sidewalk.”
I ended the call and stared at the heavy steel walls of the underground vault.
I was completely trapped fifty feet below the city streets with a literal fortune in my hands.
I turned to the security guard standing patiently in the hallway outside the vault door.
“I need to use the emergency evacuation tunnels immediately,” I told him, projecting total authority.
The guard frowned and rested his hand on his holstered weapon.
“Those tunnels are strictly reserved for platinum-level clients during catastrophic events,” he argued.
May you like
I reached into my bag, pulled out a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills Eleanor had left in the box, and shoved it into his chest.
“Consider this a catastrophic event,” I ordered.
