Chapter 7 - The Billionaire's Ultimatum
I rubbed my bruised wrists, glaring at the legal document resting on the steel table.
Daniel Han was offering me freedom, but the price was my husband's entire legacy.
"You orchestrated the destruction of my marriage and my life," I said, my voice eerily calm despite the rage boiling beneath my skin.
"And now you want me to hand you the keys to the kingdom as a reward?"
Daniel leaned back in his chair, completely unbothered by my anger.
"Your husband destroyed his own marriage, Margaret."
"I merely provided the temptation."
He tapped a manicured finger against the contract.
"If you don't sign this, Brooke will successfully transfer the assets offshore within the hour."
"You will be left with absolutely nothing."
"Sign it, and I will personally ensure Brooke Ellis spends the rest of her miserable life in a federal penitentiary for murder."
I looked down at the contract.
It was an ironclad transfer of ownership, completely relinquishing my rights as Richard's widow to the Han Investment Group.
But Daniel Han had made a massive, arrogant miscalculation.
He assumed that because I was a sixty-two-year-old widow who enjoyed gardening, I didn't understand complex corporate law.
He forgot that I had spent twenty-five years translating high-level legal depositions.
I picked up the pen he offered me.
"If I sign this, I want fifty percent of the liquidated assets deposited into a secure trust in my name," I countered firmly.
Daniel laughed, a harsh, dismissive sound.
"You are in no position to negotiate, Mrs. Halston."
"I will give you five million dollars to walk away quietly."
"Take it or leave it."
I looked him directly in the eyes, refusing to blink.
"I will take it," I said softly.
I signed the document with a flourish and pushed it across the table.
Daniel smiled triumphantly, grabbing the contract and placing it securely in his briefcase.
"You made the right choice, Margaret," he said smoothly.
"The police will be in shortly to process your release."
He stood up and walked out of the interrogation room, entirely confident that he had won.
Thirty minutes later, Detective Callahan walked in, looking incredibly frustrated.
He tossed my purse and my cell phone onto the table.
"You're free to go, Mrs. Halston," Callahan grunted.
"Mr. Han's security team provided undeniable proof that Brooke Ellis stole your coat and entered the ICU."
"We already have a warrant out for her arrest."
I grabbed my belongings and walked out of the police precinct into the freezing afternoon air.
I immediately dialed my private investigator, Marcus Thorne.
"Marcus," I said as soon as he answered.
"Did you file the paperwork I asked you to prepare this morning?"
"Yes, Margaret," Marcus replied with a hint of a chuckle in his voice.
"I filed it with the federal court exactly five minutes ago."
"Daniel Han is going to be incredibly surprised."
I hung up the phone and hailed a taxi, giving the driver the address to the Weston estate.
Daniel thought he had legally stolen Richard's real estate portfolio.
What Daniel didn't know was that Richard hadn't technically owned the portfolio for weeks.
In his desperate attempt to hide assets from me in preparation for the divorce, Richard had transferred ownership of the entire portfolio into a blind trust in South Dakota.
And according to the documents my lawyer had uncovered during my investigation, the sole beneficiary of that blind trust was not Richard, and it certainly wasn't Brooke.
It was our thirty-year-old daughter, Emily.
Daniel had just signed a completely worthless contract, and he had handed me the evidence I needed to prove he was complicit in corporate espionage.
My taxi pulled up to the massive iron gates of my home in Weston.
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But the gates were wide open, and a sleek black moving truck was parked in the driveway.
Brooke Ellis was standing on the front porch, frantically directing movers to load my antique furniture into the truck.
