Chapter 2 - The Midnight Meeting
The parking garage of my downtown office building was completely empty when I arrived.
I clutched my husband's dented compass in my coat pocket as I walked to the private elevator.
My reflection in the sliding elevator doors showed a battered but entirely unbroken woman.
Thomas was already pacing the floor of our secure boardroom when the doors opened.
His silk tie was loosened and his desk was covered in thick stacks of financial documents.
He handed me a cup of black coffee without saying a single word.
I sat down at the head of the long glass table and opened the first file.
The paperwork was a flawless forgery of my personal signature and corporate seal.
Victor had pledged my massive construction company as collateral for the illicit ten million dollar loan.
The creditor listed on the sinister contract was a man named Volkov.
Volkov was a ruthless underworld figure who controlled the shipping ports in Los Angeles.
I realized Vanessa must have introduced Victor to this incredibly dangerous connection.
Her family had a dark history of moving dirty money through offshore accounts.
My son had unknowingly sold his own mother to a criminal empire just to maintain his wealthy facade.
Thomas warned me that evicting Victor now would trigger the immediate default clause in the contract.
If the loan defaulted, Volkov would legally seize my company by morning.
I took a slow sip of the bitter coffee and processed the magnitude of the threat.
I had spent forty years building my empire with my own bleeding hands.
I was not going to surrender it to a thug in a tailored suit.
I instructed Thomas to draft a counter-offer to buy the debt directly from Volkov.
Thomas looked at me as though I had completely lost my mind.
He reminded me that men like Volkov did not negotiate with innocent civilians.
I looked at my lawyer and told him I was no longer a civilian in this war.
Suddenly, the heavy glass doors of the boardroom shattered violently inward.
Three massive men in dark leather jackets stepped over the broken glass and entered my private office.
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A tall man with a scarred face walked to the table and slammed a heavy pistol down onto the glass.
He smiled coldly and announced that Victor had offered my life to cancel the debt.
