Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Trap
By three o'clock that afternoon, Fiona’s fever had finally broken under the steady care I provided. She sat quietly at the cottage table, coloring in a book, while David Vance sat across from me, flipping through printed copies of the financial ledgers extracted from the flash drive.
David set down a highlighted document, his face grim. "It's worse than we thought, Jessica. Project Horizon isn't just an asset shell. It's a land-acquisition scheme."
"What do you mean?" I asked, leaning in.
"Your father owned forty acres of undeveloped waterfront property near the commercial harbor," David explained, pointing to a map on the sheet. "When he died, he left it in a trust for you. Luke forged your signature to transfer the deed to Project Horizon LLC. Last week, the city approved a fifty-million-dollar deep-water port expansion right next to that land. That property is now worth fifteen million dollars."
The breath caught in my throat. Fifteen million dollars. That was why they had been so patient, why Chloe had played the affectionate sister for years while lying in my husband's bed behind my back. They weren't just stealing a few hundred thousand from my savings—they were executing an execution of my entire inheritance.
"And the company go-live?" I asked.
"Luke has a major investor dinner tonight at the Grand Bay Hotel," David said, a cold smile touching his lips. "He’s pitching the merger to his lead financial backers. If they sign the contract tonight, the transfer of Project Horizon becomes official, and the money gets routed into the Cayman account permanently."
"He thinks I'm terrified," I said softly, my fingers gripping the edge of the table. "He thinks I'm sitting here trembling, terrified of the planted drugs."
"He expects you to surrender," David agreed. "So we let him think he’s winning—until he walks into that ballroom."
"What's the plan?"
David pulled out a sleek black recorder and a sealed evidence bag containing the amber drug vials I had secured from my medical bag.
"My forensic tech wiped the vials," David said. "Guess whose fingerprints were all over the glass?"
I looked at him, my heart pounding. "Luke's?"
"And Chloe's," David confirmed. "They were careless. They held the vials without gloves when they tucked them into your bag. I have already submitted the chain-of-custody report to a contact in the State Attorney’s Office. But before we hit them legally, we ruin them publicly."
He handed me a small earbud and a discreet lapel microphone disguised as a silver brooch.
"Luke sent you a text ten minutes ago," David continued. "He’s offering a meeting. He wants you to bring the drive to the private lounge at the Grand Bay Hotel at seven o'clock, before his dinner starts. He promised he won't call the police if you return the key."
I looked down at the silver brooch in my hand, feeling a wave of ice replace the hot anger in my veins.
"Tell him I'll be there," I said smoothly. "And tell him I'm bringing Fiona."
May you like
David frowned slightly. "Are you sure about taking Fiona near him?"
"Fiona stays with your security team in the hotel lobby," I replied, my eyes hardening. "I want Luke to see her. I want him to look into the eyes of the child he left in the dark before I tear his entire world down in front of his investors."
