Chapter 5 - The Unlikely Ally
I hesitated, my mind screaming at me to run far away from my husband's treacherous mistress.
But the sound of heavy footsteps echoing loudly from the alleyway forced my hand.
I threw the passenger door open and dove into the SUV just as Ethan's men burst out of the bank.
Vanessa slammed her foot onto the gas pedal, tearing through a red light to lose our pursuers.
"Why are you helping me?" I demanded, pressing my back hard against the leather seat.
Vanessa kept her eyes glued to the rearview mirror, her knuckles completely white on the steering wheel.
"I'm not in love with your sociopathic husband, Claire, and I am certainly not the managing partner's daughter."
I stared at her, completely bewildered by this sudden, massive confession.
"I am an undercover federal informant assigned to investigate Ethan's massive money laundering operation," she revealed.
"He caught me stealing files last night, and he promised to kill me if I didn't help him frame you."
"Frame me for what exactly?" I asked, my blood running cold again.
"He is using your tech company's offshore accounts to wash hundreds of millions of dollars for a violent cartel."
"The fake wire fraud confession you handed him this morning makes you the sole mastermind of the entire criminal operation."
Vanessa expertly navigated the SUV into a dark, abandoned parking garage on the edge of the city.
She pulled a high-powered laptop from the backseat and quickly booted it up.
"I installed a hidden backdoor into Ethan's private server last month," she explained, her fingers flying across the keyboard.
"We just need to download the master ledger to prove you are entirely innocent."
The screen flashed rapidly as thousands of encrypted files began pouring into her hard drive.
Suddenly, a bright red warning banner completely took over the laptop screen.
"Someone is manually overriding the download from the main office," Vanessa cursed loudly.
My stolen burner phone suddenly buzzed in my coat pocket.
I answered it, fully expecting to hear my brother's comforting voice again.
Instead, Ethan's cold, arrogant laughter echoed directly into my ear.
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"Your lawyer Mark just had a terrible, fatal accident at his house, sweetheart," Ethan whispered cruelly.
"And the police just found your fingerprints completely covering the murder weapon."
