Chapter 8 - The Federal Briefing
Two weeks later, Marcus Price requested a private meeting at the La Jolla safehouse.
I arrived just after noon. The massive dual-monitor displays that used to project surveillance feeds of my own living room now displayed federal indictments, banking records, and court dockets.
Marcus poured two cups of black coffee, handing one to me as we stood by the floor-to-ceiling glass wall overlooking the crashing waves.
"It's officially over, Daniel," Marcus said quietly. "The federal judge in downtown San Diego just handed down the final sentencing guidelines for the entire conspiracy."
I took a sip of the coffee. "Let's hear it."
"Arthur Sterling has been disbarred, stripped of his partnership, and sentenced to eight years in federal prison for corporate fraud and aiding an extortion ring," Marcus recited, scrolling through a digital tablet. "Trevor Vance received twenty-five years without parole for orchestrating the asset seizure scheme across three state jurisdictions."
"And Vanessa?"
"Twelve years at a federal correctional facility in Dublin," Marcus replied, his tone flat and professional. "She tried to cut a secondary deal by claiming she was coerced by Trevor, but the encrypted cloud backups we recovered proved she was the architect of the psychological campaign against Lily. She won't be seeing freedom anytime soon."
I let out a long, steady breath. The final pieces of the puzzle had clicked into place. The machine that had tried to chew up my family had been dismantled, gear by gear, by the very system it tried to manipulate.
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"Thank you, Marcus," I said, extending my hand. "If you hadn't intercepted those files when you did..."
"You don't need to finish that sentence, Daniel," Marcus interrupted, shaking my hand firmly. "You survived because you listened to your daughter when it mattered most. That’s what real fathers do."
