Chapter 13 - The Federal Ultimatum
The blank federal contract lay on the steel table between them, looking entirely out of place in the dreary interrogation room. Victor Sterling adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his gaze fixed intently on Marcus with the calculated coldness of a man who held all the cards. Maya stood frozen beside her husband, the terrifying weight of their new reality pressing down on them from every angle.
“You want Marcus to step into my mother’s shoes and take over her laundering network for your black budget?” Maya asked incredulously, her voice shaking with righteous fury. “Are you out of your mind? We just fought through hell to clear our names!”
Victor didn’t blink, keeping his eyes locked on Marcus as he slid a second piece of paper across the table—a photograph of baby Leo sleeping peacefully in his crib, taken less than ten minutes ago inside their estate.
“Mrs. Vance, let’s be entirely realistic about your situation,” Victor said smoothly, his tone dangerously calm. “Your Chicago criminal record may have been legally sealed, but with a single phone call from my office, I can unseal it, charge you as an active accomplice, and put you away for twenty years.”
Marcus stepped forward, slamming his palm onto the steel table with a force that rattled the room, his face dark with suppressed rage.
“Leave my wife and my son out of this, Sterling,” Marcus snarled, his voice dropping into a lethal register. “If you want a war, I will tear your entire department down to the bare concrete.”
Victor let out a slow, unbothered sigh, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs leisurely.
“You can’t fight an institution, Marcus, because you are a product of it,” Victor replied, tapping the photograph of Leo. “You have exactly twelve hours to sign the operational transfer papers. If you refuse, your wife goes to a federal penitentiary, and your son enters the state foster care system by sunrise.”
Maya grabbed Marcus’s arm, her eyes filled with tears as she shook her head violently, pleading with him not to surrender.
“Don't do it, Marcus. We’ll run. We’ll take Leo and disappear off the grid tonight,” Maya sobbed, her maternal instincts screaming against the impossible trap.
Marcus looked down at his wife, his expression hardening into a chilling, unbreakable resolve as he picked up the pen from the table.
“We aren't running anymore, Maya,” Marcus whispered, uncapping the pen with a sharp click.
May you like
As the pen touched the dotted line of the federal contract, the precinct’s emergency lights suddenly turned a harsh, blinding crimson, accompanied by the blare of an incoming missile alert siren from the citywide emergency broadcast system.
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