Chapter 4 - The Golden Trap
I stared at the photograph of my sister in absolute, paralyzing horror.
Her eyes were wide with terror, and a piece of silver duct tape covered her mouth.
"Julian sent this to my office anonymously," Mr. Vance explained grimly.
"If we legally freeze the property assets, he will have his men hurt her."
Tears streamed down my unbandaged cheek as the reality of their cruelty sank in.
Julian and Eleanor were not just greedy opportunists.
They were organized, ruthless criminals willing to commit actual murder.
I carefully reached up and unclasped the diamond necklace from my throat.
I handed the hidden recording device directly to my trusted lawyer.
"This contains Eleanor confessing to heavily bribing city building inspectors," I told him.
"It also has Julian openly threatening me while I burned."
Mr. Vance carefully placed the necklace into a secure evidence bag.
"We cannot take this to the local police yet," he warned me.
"Julian has half the precinct on his payroll, which is how he disabled the hospital cameras."
I knew we had to play a very dangerous game of deception to save my sister.
I instructed Mr. Vance to release the temporary hold on one of my smaller bank accounts.
We needed to make Julian believe he was slowly winning the financial war.
Later that night, Mr. Vance helped me sneak out of the hospital through a service elevator.
We drove to a highly secure, undisclosed safehouse on the outskirts of the city.
I spent the next two days enduring agonizing pain as my burns slowly began to heal.
I furiously tracked Julian's financial movements on a secure laptop.
He took the released funds and immediately paid off a massive debt to a notorious crime syndicate.
He thought the money was completely clean and untraceable.
He did not know I had deliberately routed those funds through a blacklisted offshore account.
The federal government immediately flagged his development company for international money laundering.
I sat back in my chair and watched the news break on a local channel.
Federal agents were currently raiding Julian's corporate headquarters.
My phone suddenly rang with an encrypted, untraceable number.
I answered it, expecting to hear Mr. Vance with a rescue update.
Instead, I heard Julian's furious, completely unhinged voice.
May you like
"You really shouldn't have left the hospital, Clara," he breathed heavily into the receiver.
"Look out your front window."
