Chapter 4 - The Desperate Predator
Daniel called me at 11:00 AM.
I let it ring three times, enjoying the visual of his panic, before answering. "Hello, Daniel. Did the oysters taste bitter last night?"
Silence hung on the line. When he finally spoke, his smooth, charming facade was completely gone. "What did you do, Emily?"
"I followed my lawyer's advice. The divorce is final. We have separated our finances."
"You breached our settlement agreement," he snarled. "The European subsidiary operating accounts are frozen. I can't even pay my staff."
"Oh, you mean the staff at Vanguard Holdings?" I asked casually, tracing the rim of my coffee cup.
I heard a sharp intake of breath. He hadn't expected me to know that name. He definitely hadn't expected me to sound so sharp, so steady.
"Emily, you're having another paranoid episode," he tried, falling back on his favorite weapon. "You're confused. You need your medication. If you don't unfreeze those accounts, the board will see how unstable you are. I'll have you committed."
"Try it," I whispered. "But before you do, you should know that I stopped taking your special vitamins three days ago. My blood work is sitting with a state prosecutor right now."
The silence this time was deafening. I could picture the exact shade of pale his face had turned.
"I'll see you at the emergency board meeting tomorrow, Daniel," I said, and hung up.
May you like
Thirty minutes later, Julian's monitors lit up with red alerts. "They're panicking," Julian announced. "Daniel is trying to manually override the asset transfers using his old executive credentials. Vanessa is booking flights to Geneva."
My father walked into the office, holding two cups of black coffee. "A cornered rat makes mistakes," Dad said, smiling grimly. "Let them try to run. The trap is already set."
