Chapter 6
Before anyone could respond, a sharp, muffled chime echoed from inside Ryan’s open briefcase. Ryan frowned, reaching past the manila folders to retrieve a secondary burner phone that was vibrating violently against the leather lining. He flipped it open, pressing it to his ear.
"Talk," Ryan said, his voice tense.
A distorted voice crackled through the speaker, filtered through a digital scrambler. "You found him. Good. But you brought an audience you shouldn't have, Ryan. Look out the conference room window."
Ryan stood up abruptly, knocking his chair back against the wood floor. He crossed the room in three long strides and pulled back the heavy velvet curtain. Clara and Julian rushed to his side, peering out into the rainy night.
Across the street, parked in the shadows beneath a flickering sodium streetlight, was a matte-black sedan. Its headlights were off, but the interior glow of a laptop screen illuminated the driver’s face—a sharp, angular profile with graying temples.
"Uncle Richard," Julian breathed, pressing his palms against the cold glass.
"He’s been tracking the digital signature on the flash drive since you accessed the secure network this evening," the scrambled voice on the phone continued. "And now, Mr. Vance and Mr. Vance, your little family reunion is about to conclude permanently. Step out the side exit of the hotel within five minutes, or the authorities will receive an anonymous tip about a fugitive living under a false identity—complete with forged marriage certificates and stolen assets."
The line went dead with a sharp click.
Ryan lowered the phone slowly, his jaw set in rigid determination. "He's cornered us. If the police get involved before we expose the financial fraud, Richard will use his political connections to have us both locked away under federal identity theft charges while he strips the company clean."
Clara stared at the dark sedan across the street, a cold fury replacing her previous grief. For four years, she had believed she was living a safe, honest life with a man who loved her. Now, she realized she had been nothing more than a pawn in a high-stakes corporate chess match orchestrated by ruthless killers.
"We're not running," Clara said, her voice steady and resolute as she turned away from the window. She picked up her smartphone from the mahogany table, slipping it into the pocket of her dark evening dress. "If Richard wants to play dirty, we use his own trap against him."
Julian looked at her, a mixture of guilt and awe in his eyes. "Clara, you shouldn't be involved in this. It's too dangerous."
"You built our entire marriage on a lie, Julian, but right now, I don't care about the past," Clara said, her eyes flashing with ice. "I care about surviving the present. What is on that flash drive?"
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Ryan stepped forward, tapping the metallic casing of the drive. "Proof of every fraudulent transaction Richard executed over the past four years, signed with the biometric credentials Julian unknowingly provided from his home office."
"Then we don't run out the side exit," Clara declared, walking toward the conference room door. "We go down to the lobby, we meet Richard's CFO face-to-face, and we broadcast every single file to the federal regulatory commission before sunrise."
