Chapter 10 - The Calm Before the Storm
By afternoon, the chaos of the federal raids had begun to settle into a grim, bureaucratic routine.
Dad was in his study on a secure line with the Pentagon JAG office, coordinating the final legal maneuvers to dismantle the remaining corporate assets controlled by Richard Vance Sr.
I sat upstairs in the newly designated nursery—a bright, sunlit room overlooking the tree-lined base housing street. We hadn't painted the walls yet, but the room already felt different. It felt safe. It felt like a place where a child could grow up without fear, without shouting, and without secrets.
My phone buzzed loudly on the wooden rocking chair beside me.
I picked it up, expecting an update from Agent Vance or a legal notification from my father’s lawyers. Instead, the screen displayed an incoming call from an unknown, restricted caller ID.
I hesitated for a second, my thumb hovering over the screen, before I swiped to answer.
“Hello?” I said, my voice steady.
For a moment, there was only heavy, ragged breathing on the other end of the line. Then, a voice spoke—distorted slightly by a prison phone proxy, but unmistakably clear.
“You think you’ve won, Emily?”
It was Linda. Her voice wasn't shrill or arrogant anymore; it was laced with a venomous, desperate fury.
“My son is sitting in a military brig because of you and your self-righteous father,” Linda hissed through the speaker. “You think a colonel’s pension and a few federal agents can protect you forever? Foster & Vance has partners you haven't even scraped the surface of. People who don't care about military courts or federal badges.”
I didn't cower. I didn't let my voice shake. I stood up from the rocking chair, walking over to the window that looked out over the secure base perimeter.
“Linda,” I said, my voice dropping into a calm, ice-cold register that mirrored my father’s. “Your son is facing twenty years for federal treason and abuse, your brother-in-law is sharing a holding cell with him, and every asset you ever stole is currently being liquidated by the Department of Justice. If there are other partners out there, tell them to call my father. He’s right downstairs.”
I didn't wait for her response. I tapped the red button, ending the call, and tossed the phone onto the mattress.
Downstairs, the heavy front door opened, and Dad’s familiar footsteps echoed up the stairs.
May you like
I turned away from the window just as Dad appeared in the doorway, holding a fresh cup of coffee and a thick sheaf of printed court documents with a grim, resolute look in his eyes.
“Emmy,” Dad said, his voice serious. “Agent Vance just decrypted the hard drive we seized from Richard’s home office. There’s something in these files you need to see—something that proves this conspiracy goes far higher up the chain than we ever imagined.”
