Chapter 5 - Unraveling the Web“This is an outrage!” Penelope screamed, standing up and marching toward the federal agents, her fake tears instantly replaced by vicious venom. “My husband is a respected executive! These people are frauds! Arrest them!”
Agent Miller, the lead federal investigator, didn't even look at her. He pulled a folded document from his breast pocket and unfolded it with a sharp snap.
“Garrett Sterling, you are under arrest for corporate embezzlement, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit interstate murder, and the attempted homicide of Rosalind and Tobias Vance,” Agent Miller recited clearly, his voice echoing off the glass walls. “And Penelope Blair, you are being detained as an active co-conspirator in financial laundering and accessory to premeditated murder.”
Penelope stumbled backward, her manicured hands flying to her mouth. “No! You can't prove anything! It was an accident! The car slid off the road!”
“Was it an accident?” Tobias asked calmly, stepping forward and tossing a thick stack of printed forensic reports onto the center of the table. “Because the state police marine unit pulled the SUV out of Savannah Creek at dawn. They recovered the severed brake lines on your car, Garrett—cut with the exact same industrial hydraulic shear registered to your private hunting lodge.”
Garrett stared at the photos lying on the table, his chest heaving as he realized the trap had snapped shut completely. His smooth, charismatic facade completely dissolved, revealing the desperate, cornered rat underneath.
“You ruined everything,” Garrett hissed, glaring at me with raw, venomous hatred. “You and your useless brother! If you had just stayed in that car and drowned like a good little wife, none of this would have happened!”
“You killed my parents, Garrett,” I said quietly, stepping closer to him until I was just inches away. “You tried to kill me. And you thought you could inherit my family’s legacy while poisoning me with your synthetic toxins every single night.”
Garrett sneered, a desperate, ugly laugh escaping his lips. “And what do you think happens now, Rosalind? You think putting me in a cell saves your company? Sterling-Vance is drowning in debt. Without my offshore capital injections, the board goes bankrupt by Friday. You won't even have a shipyard left to stand on.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, husband,” a cool voice echoed from the doorway.
Another man stepped into the boardroom—Julian Vance, our estranged uncle from the London maritime branch, flanked by international auditors.
“The European shipping conglomerate bought out our remaining debt liabilities at midnight,” Uncle Julian announced, offering me a warm, proud smile. “The company is safe, Rosalind. And the Sterling family assets have been frozen by federal order pending forfeiture.”
Garrett let out a strangled cry of rage and lunged across the table toward me, his hands clawing for my throat.
Before he could take two steps, Tobias moved with blinding speed. He grabbed Garrett by the collar of his expensive designer suit, spun him around, and slammed him face-first onto the mahogany table with a resounding crash, pinning him instantly.
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“Fifteen years of physical therapy taught me how to put all my weight behind a single strike, Garrett,” Tobias whispered into the terrified man's ear. “Never underestimate someone who pretends to be weaker than they actually are.”
The federal agents swarmed forward, snapping steel handcuffs onto Garrett’s wrists and dragging him away toward the elevators as he screamed obscenities down the marble corridor. Penelope was hauled away right behind him, sobbing hysterically as her expensive heels clicked against the floor for the last time.
