Chapter 2 - The Missing Millions
The voice of my panicked banker echoed across the quiet driveway.
He shouted that fifty million dollars was actively being drained from my primary accounts.
I stared at Brandon, who was kneeling in the dirt with a gun pointed at his heart.
I asked my banker who was authorizing these massive international wire transfers.
He told me the bank had received a notarized power of attorney bearing my exact signature.
I immediately ordered him to initiate a hard freeze on all my social security numbers and corporate tax IDs.
I hung up the phone and looked directly at Tessa.
She was sweating profusely and chewing nervously on her bottom lip.
I asked her exactly how she had managed to forge a federal power of attorney document.
Tessa tried to play the victim and started crying crocodile tears.
She swore she only wanted the three million dollars for her startup cosmetic company.
The man with the gun laughed a deep, terrifying laugh.
He revealed that Tessa did not own a cosmetic business at all.
He said she was a known grifter who had been targeted by his syndicate for stealing from the wrong people.
Brandon looked at his girlfriend in absolute horror.
He asked her if their entire relationship had been a fabricated lie to get to my wealth.
Tessa dropped her fake crying act and glared at him with complete disgust.
She told my brother he was the most pathetic, gullible idiot she had ever met.
She admitted that she had manipulated him into selling the farm just to pay off her own dangerous debts.
The man with the gun stepped forward and pressed the barrel against Brandon's forehead.
He calmly stated that Tessa's three million dollars was not nearly enough to satisfy the boss.
He demanded that I hand over the keys to the farmhouse immediately as collateral.
I refused to give up the only place I had ever called home.
I slowly reached my hand into my purse, feeling the cold steel of my own licensed firearm.
The syndicate enforcer noticed my movement and aimed his weapon at my chest.
He warned me that I could not possibly shoot faster than a trained killer.
I smiled and told him I did not need to shoot faster than him.
Suddenly, a deafening siren began to blare from the trees surrounding the property.
A massive steel barricade erupted from the ground across the driveway, completely trapping his car inside the gates.
I had triggered the estate's lockdown protocol using a hidden button on my car keys.
The enforcer looked around wildly as heavily armed private security guards emerged from the apple orchard.
He dropped his weapon and raised his hands in the air.
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Just as I thought I had won, my phone buzzed with a text message from an unknown number.
The message contained a live video feed of my city penthouse, showing three masked men holding my rescue dogs hostage.
