Chapter 7 - The Interrogation Room
An hour later, I stood behind the two-way mirror inside the federal building’s interrogation wing.
On the other side of the glass sat Luke.
His expensive suit jacket was gone, his tie was loosened, and his hair was a wild, messy mop. His hands were handcuffed to the metal loop fixed to the center of the wooden table. He looked small, broken, and completely stripped of his arrogant swagger.
Agent Vance stepped into the room, holding a thick black binder. She set it down heavily on the table opposite him.
"Where is Hannah?" Luke demanded immediately, his voice hoarse and cracking. "I have a right to see my wife! This is a domestic misunderstanding! We had an argument about real estate!"
Agent Vance sat down slowly, opening the binder.
"Mr. Ross," Agent Vance said calmly. "Your wife is currently filing an emergency petition for an annulment based on fraud, alongside a complete asset protection freeze across all your personal and corporate accounts."
"She can't do that!" Luke shouted, slamming his cuffed hands against the table. "We are married! She owes me—"
"She owes you nothing," Agent Vance cut him off sharp and hard. "Let's review the charges against you, shall we?"
She flipped to the first section.
"Count one: Federal bank fraud involving two-point-two million dollars. Count two: Conspiracy to commit grand larceny regarding the Atlanta real estate trust. Count three: Identity theft involving forged signatures on three separate commercial loan applications over a thirty-six-month period."
Luke swallowed hard, his throat bobbing frantically. "I... I was just borrowing against our marital equity! I was going to pay it back!"
"With what?" Agent Vance laughed dryly. "Your logistics firm is four hundred thousand dollars in debt. Your brother-in-law's warehouse project is completely insolvent. You were using your wife's inherited trust money to keep your family's failed businesses afloat."
"It was my mother!" Luke suddenly burst out, tears filling his bloodshot eyes. "My mother insisted! She said Hannah had too much money! She said Chloe deserved a better life! Brenda made me do it!"
Behind the two-way mirror, I felt a cold knot of disgust tighten in my throat.
The man who had stood in his mother's living room twelve hours ago, watching his family throw my late mother's heirlooms down the stairs while telling me to 'just deal with it,' was now throwing his own mother directly under the bus to save his own skin.
"Your mother, Brenda Ross, has also been processed," Agent Vance informed him coldly. "She is currently being charged as a co-conspirator in identity theft and receiving stolen property, alongside your sister Chloe and her husband Oscar. Your notary friend, Sarah Jenkins, was picked up thirty minutes ago. She's already singing like a canary to lower her sentence."
Luke collapsed back against his chair, burying his face in his cuffed hands, letting out a pitiful, shuddering sob.
"She destroyed me..." Luke wept. "Hannah destroyed my whole family..."
Agent Vance stood up, looking down at him with utter contempt.
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"Hannah didn't destroy your family, Mr. Ross," Agent Vance said softly. "You destroyed your family the moment you decided that a loyal wife was nothing more than a bank account to be looted."
She turned and walked out of the room, letting the heavy steel door click shut, leaving Luke sobbing alone in the cold fluorescent light.
