Chapter 4 - Cornered Rats
The man with the gold teeth casually walked into the living room.
He wiped his muddy boots on Catherine's expensive white rug.
Richard raised his hands, begging for a little more time to gather the funds.
The man laughed, explaining that the syndicate knew Richard's accounts were frozen.
They knew the money they had trusted him to launder was trapped in a federal lockbox.
The man grabbed the heavy blue vase from the mantel and smashed it against the tile floor.
He told Richard he had exactly forty-eight hours to produce three million dollars in cash.
If the money was not delivered, the syndicate would collect their debt in blood.
The men walked out, leaving the house in complete ruin.
Catherine fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably amidst the shattered porcelain.
Madison was hyperventilating, realizing her entire glamorous life was permanently over.
Richard's face turned purple with desperate, blinding rage.
He blamed me for absolutely everything.
He ran to his truck and sped away, determined to force me to fix the mess he had created.
He used a private investigator to track down my new luxury apartment address.
He arrived at the high-rise building and slipped past the distracted concierge.
He took the elevator to the penthouse suite and kicked my front door off its hinges.
He roared my name, marching through the massive living room with his fists clenched.
But the apartment was completely empty.
There was no furniture, no art, and no sign that anyone lived there at all.
The only object in the entire penthouse was a laptop sitting on the bare floor.
The screen displayed a digital timer counting down from ten seconds.
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Richard stared at it, frozen in profound confusion.
The timer reached zero, and the laptop screen flashed brightly.
