Chapter 5 - The Frame Job
The underground garage suddenly felt incredibly cold as the reality of my situation crushed me.
Evan had not just stolen money; he had spent the last three years framing me for his organized crime connections.
Dana immediately disconnected the tablet from the internet to prevent any further tracking.
She explained that if the authorities saw this drive, I would be facing decades in federal prison.
Brooke swore she had no idea what was actually on the drive, claiming Evan had simply told her it was corporate ledgers.
I realized I was caught in a deadly trap designed by the man who had promised to love me forever.
My phone chimed with a text message from Evan's younger sister, Paige.
The message was just a photograph of an old, rusted safety deposit box key.
Beneath the photo, Paige wrote that she hated her brother and wanted to help me destroy him.
She claimed Evan had hidden the real, unedited ledgers in a private vault under their mother's name.
I looked at Dana, knowing that going to Diane's bank was a massive and potentially fatal risk.
Dana warned me that Paige could easily be setting a trap on behalf of her mother.
I decided I had no other choice, as proving my innocence was now a matter of literal survival.
I left Brooke in the safety of Dana's office and took a cab to the Lake Forest bank branch.
I used my old family authorization code to access the vault room, my heart pounding furiously against my ribs.
I opened the metal box, expecting to find stacks of documents or digital hard drives.
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Instead, the box was entirely empty except for a single, freshly printed photograph.
It was a picture of me walking into Dana's office that morning, with a red target drawn directly over my face.
