Chapter 5 - The Phantom Call
The phone continued its harsh, rhythmic buzzing against the plastic console, casting an eerie green glow across Mark’s tense face. Neither of them reached for it. The snow was falling thicker now, sticking to the windshield and blurring the amber streetlights into distant halos of light. Lily had finally quieted down, sucking her thumb in the backseat while clutching her red hair bow. Clara stared at the vibrating screen, her breath fogging the side window as the cold seeped through the car’s aging heater system.
"Answer it," Clara said quietly, her voice devoid of fear, replaced by a cold, hardened resolve. "If we're going to run, we need to know what they're thinking."
Mark exhaled a shaky breath, reached out with one hand, and hit speakerphone before sliding it into the dash holder.
"Mark," Richard’s voice crackled through the speakers, devoid of familial warmth, sounding chillingly clinical and detached. "You're making a catastrophic mistake. Bringing Evelyn into this won't save you. The board has already voted to freeze all joint accounts, and David has filed an injunction seizing your primary residence. You are legally, professionally, and financially nonexistent."
"You embezzled forty million dollars from the pension fund, Richard," Mark shot back, his voice steady despite the tremor in his hands. "I have the digital ledgers. I have the wire receipts. The federal prosecutor already has an automated packet set to drop if my phone goes dead for twenty-four hours."
A heavy silence hung on the line for several seconds, broken only by the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers.
"You always were remarkably arrogant for a middle-management auditor, Mark," Richard replied, a dark chuckle slipping through the audio. "Do you really think a dead man's backup packet will reach a federal judge before David’s associates catch up to that old sedan? Turn the car around, bring Evelyn’s flash drive back to the house, and maybe—just maybe—I’ll let Clara and the child keep their healthcare."
Mark slammed his fist onto the steering wheel, making the horn blare loudly into the empty night. "Go to hell, Richard!" He disconnected the call, cutting the connection with a sharp swipe of his thumb.
Clara turned to look at her husband, her heart aching as she saw the sheer despair etched into the fine lines around his eyes. "Is he right, Mark? Do they have our house?"
"I don't know," Mark muttered, steering the car down a barely visible dirt track that branched off the main highway, hidden behind a thick wall of pine trees. "Everything we worked for, everything we built over the last eight years—it’s tied up in corporate assets that Richard controls through shell companies. But the flash drive Evelyn gave you... that's our leverage."
The car bounced heavily over a frozen rut, the undercarriage scraping against a hidden rock with a metallic groan. Mark slowed the vehicle to a crawl, navigating through the pitch-black forest until a small, dilapidated wooden cabin emerged from the shadows, its roof blanketed in thick white snow. There were no lights on inside, but a faint curl of smoke drifted from the stone chimney.
Mark cut the engine, plunging the car into absolute silence save for the gentle hum of the cooling motor.
May you like
"Stay here with Lily," Mark whispered, reaching into the glove compartment and pulling out a heavy iron flashlight. "I need to check if Arthur is inside. If he's still here, we might actually have a fighting chance."
---
