Chapter 3 - The Boardroom TrapBy 7:00 a.m., the snow outside had stopped, leaving Manhattan blanketed in a blinding, icy white.
Inside the surgical recovery suite on the fourth floor of Mercy General Hospital, Kenneth lay hooked up to IV drips, his face pale, his lower body immobilized under heavy medical wraps following a three-hour reconstructive surgery.
The door swung open.
I walked into the room wearing my sharp black suit, holding a leather briefcase, my posture tall, fluid, and sovereign.
Behind me walked Justin, his face grim, carrying a stack of printed text message logs retrieved from Maya's phone.
Kenneth opened his bloodshot eyes, groaning softly as he tried to adjust his pillows. When he saw me standing at the foot of his bed, a weak, manipulative smile touched his lips.
"Sabrina..." Kenneth rasped out, his voice hoarse from the intubation tube. "Thank God you're here. The doctor said the surgery went well... Honey, about last night... Maya lied to you. She threatened to tell the board I was mismanaging funds if I didn't meet her—"
"Save your breath, Kenneth," I spoke softly. My voice was devoid of all anger, all passion, and all warmth. It sounded like frozen iron.
I opened my briefcase, pulled out the manila folder from his safe, and tossed it flat onto his chest.
Kenneth’s eyes dropped to the red medical cross on the cover.
The color vanished from his face so fast he looked like a corpse lying against the white sheets. His hands began to tremble violently against the blanket.
"Where... where did you get this?" he choked out, his eyes wide with a sudden, apocalyptic terror.
"7-4-1-9-0-2," I murmured, leaning over the bed rail, my face inches from his pale, sweating forehead. "You gave me the combination yourself while you were screaming on the ER floor, Kenneth."
Kenneth swallowed hard, his throat making a dry, rattling sound. "Sabrina... listen to me... Eleanor forced me! She threatened to pull Vance Enterprises' credit lines if I didn't help her clear your proxies!"
Justin stepped forward, slamming the text message logs onto the side table.
"You offered my wife three million dollars to spy on my father's medical accounts, you bastard!" Justin snarled, his fist clenching until his knuckles turned white. "Maya confessed everything to the precinct captain forty minutes ago after I showed her the bank transfer records!"
Kenneth looked from Justin to me, realizing in a single, terrifying second that his entire network of lies had completely shattered.
"What... what are you going to do?" Kenneth whimpered.
I pulled a pen from my pocket and laid a fresh set of legal documents on his tray.
"You are going to sign a full, unreserved confession regarding the toxicology poisoning, the corporate embezzlement, and the conservatorship conspiracy," I instructed cleanly. "And then you are going to sign over every share of Rollins Logistics to Vance Enterprises."
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"And if I refuse?" Kenneth stammered defensively.
"If you refuse," I replied with a razor-sharp, lethal smile, "the Federal Bureau of Investigation will arrest you in this hospital bed within ten minutes for attempted murder by chemical poisoning under the RICO Act."
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