Chapter 8 - The Broadcast of Ruin
I dragged Arthur, bound and terrified, down to the presidential suite. Vance had already breached the doors, holding the five members of the shadow board at gunpoint.
When Arthur was thrown onto the plush white rug in front of his co-conspirators, Marcus glared at him with lethal intent.
"You incompetent fool," Marcus spat at Arthur. "You told us she was dead."
"She is a demon!" Arthur wept, completely broken.
I stood in the center of the room, my shredded dress and bloody face a stark contrast to their haute couture. I tapped my smartphone, connecting it to the massive flat-screen television on the wall.
"Five years ago, you all voted to murder a good man so you could turn my family's empire into a laundromat for blood money," I said, my voice echoing in the quiet room. "You thought because I was young, because I was a woman, I would simply take my trust fund and look the other way."
I pressed play.
The video on the screen was a live feed from the basement. Elias, the hitman, was tied to a chair. He was looking directly into the camera.
"My name is Elias Vance," the hitman’s recorded confession played loud and clear. "Five years ago, I was contracted by Arthur Kaelen and the shadow board—Marcus Vance, Eleanor Vance, and their associates—to assassinate the CEO of Kaelen Holdings. Today, I was paid to kill his daughter. I have the offshore transaction records, the burner phones, and the exact coordinates of the money laundering accounts."
The faces of the shadow board drained of color. They were billionaires, untouchable elites who operated in the dark. Now, the lights were on.
"This video," I said, holding up my phone, "is currently being live-streamed to the FBI field office in New York, the SEC, and every major news outlet in the country. The lockdown wasn't just to keep you inside. It was to give the authorities time to surround the building."
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Right on cue, the sound of heavy helicopter rotors chopped through the storm outside. Red and blue police lights began flashing violently against the opaque glass of the suite.
"It's over," I whispered, looking down at Arthur. "The Kaelen empire belongs to me. And you belong to the state."
