Chapter 2 - The Fall of the House of ValeThe interrogation didn't happen in a police station. It happened right there, in the living room where Adrian had spent the last two hours playing executioner.
Two of my father’s operatives had seized Adrian and forced him down onto his knees on the exact same marble spot where I had been kneeling minutes earlier. Vanessa was pinned against the velvet sofa by a third operative, her mascara running down her cheeks in jagged, black streaks as she sobbed hysterically.
"Let me go! You can't do this! My uncle is a federal judge!" Vanessa shrieked, thrashing against the operative's grip.
"Your uncle resigned from the federal bench twelve minutes ago after our legal team forwarded his offshore tax evasion files to the Department of Justice," my father’s chief legal counsel, Marcus Vance, announced smoothly as he stepped through the shattered doorway, holding a thick leather briefcase.
Marcus walked over to the coffee table, opened the case, and began pulling out stacks of legal documents, corporate ledgers, and forensic audit reports. He tossed a thick sheaf of papers directly into Adrian’s lap.
Adrian stared down at the documents, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps.
"W-what is this?" Adrian stammered, looking up at my father with eyes wide with terror. "Corporate audits? That's... those are Vale Holdings accounts! You can't touch those! That's private property!"
"Property you acquired by embezzling three million dollars from Sterling-backed venture capital funds over the past eighteen months," my father replied coldly, pulling a gold-plated fountain pen from his pocket and clicking it open. "You thought you were so clever, Adrian. You thought marrying my daughter gave you a backdoor into our investment networks. You didn't realize that every dime you routed through Vanessa’s fake consulting firm was being tracked by our forensic software from day one."
Adrian shook his head frantically. "No! No, Evelyn signed those transfer approvals! She's an officer of the company! If I go down, she goes down with me for corporate fraud!"
I slowly stood up, letting my father’s suit jacket drape over my shoulders. I walked over to the coffee table, looked down at Adrian, and reached up to my neck.
I unclipped the heavy diamond pendant resting against my collarbone.
"You always laughed at this necklace, Adrian," I said, my voice steady and cold. "You called it a gaudy piece of junk my 'pauper accountant' father had bought me at a pawn shop before he supposedly went bankrupt."
I pressed a tiny, hidden release catch on the side of the diamond casing. The front popped open, revealing a micro-SD card and an integrated titanium recording chip.
"Every conversation we've had in this house for the last six months," I continued, sliding the chip out and tossing it onto the papers in his lap. "Every threat you made. Every forged signature where you forged my handwriting to drain the corporate accounts. Every instruction you gave Vanessa on how to siphon the venture capital funds. It's all right there."
Adrian stared at the tiny chip as if it were a venomous snake.
"You... you recorded me?" he whispered.
"From the day you pushed me down the stairs," I replied without a trace of emotion. "You taught me that a man who believes his shield is impenetrable will reveal his true nature. You just happened to be completely wrong about who was holding the sword."
May you like
My father gestured to the operatives. "Pack them up. The federal prosecutor’s office in downtown Dallas is waiting for the transfer. And make sure the SEC freezes every personal asset, bank account, and vehicle registered to the Vale name before sunrise."
"Dad," I added quietly as Adrian was hauled roughly to his feet, kicking and screaming obscenities. "Leave his car. He's going to need a ride to the penitentiary, but let him walk out of here the same way he let me in—with nothing."
