Chapter 6 - THE RETALIATION
Cornered animals are at their most dangerous when they realize they have nothing left to lose.
The following afternoon, I was staying at a quiet hotel near the waterfront, preparing the final presentation for the San Francisco tech accelerator. The cloud servers were secure, the legal defense team was mobilized, and for the first time in three years, I felt a sense of freedom.
Then, my hotel room door shook violently under a barrage of heavy knocks.
I stood up, checking the peephole. Standing in the hallway was my mother's brother, Uncle Richard—a towering, heavy-set man who ran a shady logistics firm on the docks and had always acted as Evelyn's personal enforcer when family arguments got ugly.
"Nora! Open this door right now!" Richard yelled, his voice muffled by the thick wood. "We need to talk!"
I kept the door locked, stepping back into the room. "Leave, Uncle Richard, or I'm calling hotel security."
"You think you can ruin my sister and just walk away with millions?" Richard snarled, kicking the bottom of the door. "You listen to me, you ungrateful little brat! Your mother built this family! You hand over those server keys and sign the liability release forms, or I guarantee you won't make it to that airport on Friday!"
My heart hammered in my chest, but I forced my voice to remain steady. "I've already backed up all communications, Richard. If anything happens to me, an automated dispatch goes straight to the police department naming you and Mother."
"You think the cops care about your computer files?" Richard yelled, slamming his shoulder against the door frame. "Sign the release!"
Suddenly, two tall hotel security officers rushed down the carpeted hallway, followed closely by Marcus.
"Hands against the wall, sir!" one of the guards shouted, reaching for his taser.
Richard whirled around, cursing loudly as the guards pinned him against the hallway wall. Marcus walked past him, stepping into my room and locking the door behind him.
"Are you alright, Nora?" Marcus asked, checking my hands to see if I was shaking.
"I'm fine," I said, taking a deep breath. "They're getting desperate."
"Desperate isn't the half of it," Marcus said, pulling a thin tablet from his briefcase. "Evelyn tried to wire one million dollars out of the foundation's secondary account an hour ago. The bank flagged the transaction, and federal marshals just executed an arrest warrant at her house."
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the news wash over me. "They arrested her?"
May you like
"Both of them," Marcus confirmed. "Evelyn and Celeste are currently in holding at the federal courthouse downtown. Bail has been set at two million dollars each, and with their accounts frozen, they can't post it."
I looked out the window at the gray skyline of Seattle. The war was nearing its end, but the final, hardest piece of business still remained: my father's true estate and the fate of baby Leo.
