Chapter 10 - The False Victory
Flynn looked as if he had just seen a ghost, his microphone slipping from his trembling hand and crashing to the floor.
Selina took a terrified step backward, her face draining of all color as she stared up at me.
"Mabel?" Flynn stammered, completely losing his flawless corporate composure.
I did not give him a chance to recover his wits or spin another pathetic lie for the crowd.
I pressed the button on the small remote control hidden discreetly in my palm.
The massive projector screens behind the podium instantly flickered to life with blinding brightness.
The crystal-clear, unedited nanny cam footage from my living room began to play for five hundred of the most powerful people in Chicago.
They watched in absolute horror as Selina deliberately scratched her own arm and handed Flynn the knife.
They listened to the undeniable audio of Flynn agreeing to murder his pregnant wife for total corporate control.
Absolute chaos erupted in the ballroom as board members began shouting and journalists scrambled desperately for their cameras.
The heavy ballroom doors swung violently open, and a dozen armed police officers marched straight toward the stage.
Flynn tried to run toward the back exit, but two officers tackled him brutally to the polished marble floor.
Selina was screaming hysterically as cold steel handcuffs were snapped aggressively onto her wrists.
I watched the police drag the man who killed my children out the back doors, completely ruined and disgraced forever.
I turned to Marcus, throwing my arms around his neck in a fierce, victorious embrace.
We had won the war, and the Vance Global empire was finally mine again.
Marcus smiled warmly, escorting me back to his private car in the underground garage to escape the media frenzy.
When we reached his sedan, he told me he forgot his keys and asked me to wait comfortably in the passenger seat.
I sat in the quiet car, letting out a massive breath of relief as I glanced down at his cell phone resting in the cup holder.
The screen suddenly lit up with a new text message from an unsaved number.
"Flynn took the fall perfectly, Dr. Reed, just as we planned from the very beginning."
I froze entirely, my hands trembling as I tapped the screen to read the previous messages in the hidden thread.
The horrific messages revealed that Marcus was the one who prescribed the hallucinogenic drugs that caused Flynn's violent break with reality.
Marcus didn't save me to help me find justice; he saved me to ensure Flynn went to prison so he could take over the company himself.
Suddenly, the driver's side door opened, and Marcus slid into the seat, locking the doors with a cold, terrifying click.
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He looked at me, his warm, comforting smile completely gone, replaced by the dead, empty eyes of a psychopath.
"You played your part wonderfully tonight, Mabel," he whispered, pulling a loaded syringe from his tuxedo pocket.
