Chapter 3 - The Ghost on the Line
Genevieve stared down at the foil packet lying innocently on the cold concrete floor. Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. Slowly, deliberately, she knelt and picked it up. Inside was a burner prepaid phone with a cracked screen, already powered on, glowing with a single blinking notification.
She glanced nervously toward the heavy steel door. The institutional hum of the hallway was steady, punctuated only by the distant, echoing shouts of inmates down the tier. With trembling fingers, she unlocked the device using the six-digit code scribbled on the foil wrapper—her own childhood birthday.
The screen immediately opened to an active, encrypted voice call. Without thinking, she brought the tiny plastic device to her ear.
"Genevieve?"
The voice on the other end was raspy, aged by grief and relentless fury, yet instantly recognizable. It was her father.
"Dad," Genevieve breathed, a single tear breaking free and tracking down her cheek. "You're alive. They told me you had a stroke, that you were in a coma..."
"Lies, sweetheart. All fabricated by Julian to clear the board," Chris Berlinsky’s voice crackled through the low-quality speaker, filled with a terrifying, calculated calm. "I’ve been watching from the blind spots. I saw what they did to you in that courtroom today. I have the files, Gen. Every offshore wire transfer, every forged board resolution, every shell company Julian used to siphon our family fortune."
Genevieve closed her eyes, leaning her forehead against the damp concrete wall. "Marcus... the police officer who slipped me the note... he told me Julian is going to lose everything tomorrow."
"Marcus is my inside man," Chris replied, a cold, hard edge sharpening his tone. "He’s been embedding himself in the precinct payroll for three years, waiting for the exact moment Julian’s ego made him sloppy. And boy, did Julian get sloppy. He used company funds to buy that penthouse for Chloe. That’s federal wire fraud, Gen. Non-bailable."
"What do you need me to do from in here?" Genevieve asked, her voice hardening, shedding the last remnants of the helpless woman who had stood in that courtroom.
"Stay alive, stay quiet, and let Marcus do his job," her father instructed. "Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, federal agents are executing a no-knock raid on Vance Global headquarters. Julian’s accounts will be frozen before the markets open. But Gen—there's something else. Something Julian hid in your personal safe at the firm. A hard drive."
Before Genevieve could ask what was on the drive, a heavy thud echoed outside her cell door, followed by the jingle of keys in the lock.
"Dad, someone's coming—"
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The line went dead with a sharp click, leaving Genevieve alone in the dark as the heavy door swung open, revealing the cold, unblinking eyes of Guard Miller.
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