Chapter 5 - THE COLD REALITY
Victor's eyes darted between Daniel and the smartphone sitting in the charging cradle on the console table behind him. The screen was flashing with a rapid, continuous series of notifications.
Slowly, his left hand reached out and picked up the device.
The screen displayed twelve missed calls from his corporate attorney. Below those were alerts from three different news outlets.
BREAKING: Hale Infrastructure under federal investigation for bribery, tax fraud. STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION suspends all contracts with Hale Construction. SECURE HOLD placed on all domestic assets of Victor Hale.
"No," Victor whispered, his face turning from a furious red to a pasty, sickly grey. "No, this is impossible. This takes weeks... months..."
"It takes months to build a case," Daniel said, taking a step down the stairs. "But it only takes five minutes to execute an emergency evidence hold when the investigator has a signed affidavit from the victim of witness intimidation. You texted Claire tonight, Victor. You threatened her. That message was sent from your personal phone, which is registered to your company. That constituted a federal crime—intimidation of a key witness in an ongoing federal financial investigation."
Victor’s hand fell to his side, the heavy pistol suddenly feeling like a lead weight. "What... what ongoing investigation?"
"The one I started six months ago," Daniel said, his voice dropping into a low, deadly register. "Before I even proposed to Claire, I knew who you were. I knew what you had done to her. And I knew that if I just went to the police with her scars, your high-priced lawyers would have torn her apart on the stand. They would have called her a liar, a gold-digger, a crazy girl looking for a payout. I had to destroy your shield first. I had to make sure you had no money, no lawyers, and no friends before we brought the real charges."
"You... you planned this?" Victor whispered, looking at Daniel as if seeing him for the first time. "You married her just to get to me?"
May you like
"No," Daniel said, his eyes softening as he looked back at Claire, who was watching him with tears streaming down her face. "I married her because I love her. Destroying you was just my wedding gift to her."
From outside, the distant, rising wail of police sirens began to echo through the quiet hills.
