Chapter 7
The soft hum of the penthouse ventilation system was the only sound in the vast office as Arthur Vane stared down at the glowing screen of the tablet. His reflection stared back at him from the dark glass—an old, tired man whose house of cards had finally collapsed under its own weight.
Victoria paced the Persian rug behind him, her wedding dress hissing with every sharp turn. “Dad, don’t listen to her! Call the corporate lawyers! Call security! Have her thrown out of the building right now!”
“Security isn't coming, Victoria,” Arthur whispered, his voice cracking with sudden, profound defeat. He let the tablet slide from his trembling fingers, where it clattered softly against the desk. He looked up at Elena, his eyes clouded with a mixture of fear and reluctant respect. “How did you find the offshore accounts in the Caymans? We used three layers of shell corporations.”
Elena walked slowly toward the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out over the twinkling lights of the city below. The bruises on her face caught the cool blue glow of the glass, reminding her of the violent ambush she had survived just hours earlier in the alley behind the financial district.
“You hired a boutique cybersecurity firm run by young graduates who thought they were smarter than everyone else,” Elena said evenly, not turning around. “They used the same password generator for all three shell companies. It took my analytical team four minutes to crack the encryption.”
“You were ambushed this morning,” Arthur said quietly, connecting the dots as he looked at her torn clothes and bruised skin. “My associates tried to stop you from reaching the hotel.”
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“They tried,” Elena agreed, turning back to face him with a cold, level stare. “Three professionals with tactical training and heavy batons. They broke a rib, split my lip, and left me in a dumpster behind Fourth Street. They made the mistake of leaving me alive, Arthur. And they made the bigger mistake of leaving my phone intact.”
Victoria stopped pacing, her breath catching in her throat as she stared at Elena with newfound horror. She hadn't known about the ambush. Her father had kept the desperate underworld dealings out of her immediate sight, but hearing it now, spoken with such casual, terrifying certainty, made the reality of their situation crash down upon her like an avalanche.
