Chapter 6 - The Interrogation Room
The interrogation room smelled of stale coffee and cheap disinfectant. The harsh fluorescent light hummed overhead, casting a sickly greenish glow over the gray metal table that separated Clara from Detective Miller.
"Let's go through it one more time, Ms. Hayes," Detective Miller said, leaning forward and tapping a printed bank statement against the tabletop. "You claim you had no knowledge of the fifty-million-dollar wire transfer executed from the holding company's primary account during your wedding reception."
Clara kept her hands folded neatly in her lap, her posture rigid despite the exhaustion pulling at her bones. "I've told you three times already. I was standing in the grand ballroom arguing with a bartender about champagne boxes when the music stopped. I didn't even have my phone on me—it was locked in the bridal suite."
Detective Miller let out a slow, cynical breath, shaking his head. "Convenient. Security footage places you within twenty feet of the private VIP lounge server room just ten minutes before the transfer code was entered."
"Because Julian's brother Marcus told me Julian was waiting for me in the VIP suite!" Clara countered, her voice sharp with rising frustration. "It was a setup. They lured me down there so they could pin their own corporate embezzlement on me."
"And the offshore account in the Cayman Islands registered under an LLC with your maiden name?" Miller asked, sliding a folded document across the table.
Clara looked down at the paper. Her eyes scanned the registration details—it was her old passport number, but the address listed was a P.O. box in Zurich that she had never heard of in her life. Someone had used her discarded identity documents from her previous startup dissolution to spin a completely fabricated corporate persona.
"This is a forgery," Clara whispered, feeling the cold weight of the trap closing in tighter around her throat. "Anyone who had access to my startup liquidation files could have pulled my passport scan."
"Like your former business partner, David Chen?" Miller suggested, raising an eyebrow.
Clara froze. David. She hadn't spoken to David in over a year, not since their company imploded under mysterious circumstances and he vanished to Singapore with the remaining seed capital. If David was back in the country, it meant the entire nightmare leading up to this wedding wasn't just about Eleanor Vance hating her—it was a coordinated vendetta spanning years.
Before Clara could answer, the heavy metal door of the interrogation room swung open. A young precinct officer leaned in, whispering urgently into Detective Miller’s ear.
Miller’s face went completely blank as he listened. When the officer finished, Miller slowly looked back up at Clara, his expression no longer skeptical, but deeply unsettled.
May you like
"Well, Ms. Hayes," Miller said slowly, closing the folder. "It looks like your former business partner just turned himself in at the downtown precinct. And he brought a very interesting visitor with him."
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