Chapter 5 - The Mistress's Trap
The morning sun cast long, harsh shadows across the lobby of the federal courthouse as I stepped out of the town car, flanked by two federal marshals and Daniel Brooks. Flashbulbs erupted like a thunderstorm. Reporters swarmed the barricades, screaming questions about Jason’s midnight arrest and the sudden collapse of Mitchell Medical Technologies' stock value.
I didn't break stride. I kept my head high, wearing a sharp, tailored black wool coat that completely concealed the scars beneath, though the memory of them gave me a quiet, unbreakable armor.
Inside the corridor, outside Judge Vance’s chambers, we ran straight into Madison.
She wasn't wearing her elegant white dress anymore. Instead, she wore an expensive designer trench coat, her hair slightly disheveled, clutching a stack of legal documents to her chest like a shield. When she saw me walk in with federal escorts, her face turned pale.
"Iris," Madison stammered, stepping into our path. "Iris, you have to listen to me. I had nothing to do with what Jason did! I was just... I was just an employee! He manipulated me!"
Daniel stopped, raising an eyebrow. "Is that why you filed an emergency proxy motion three hours ago claiming fifty percent ownership of Mitchell Medical’s Cayman Island subsidiaries?"
Madison’s mouth parted in shock. She looked at Daniel, then back at me, realizing her secret legal maneuver had already been intercepted.
"That... that's my personal property!" Madison shrieked, her voice echoing off the marble walls. "Jason promised me those assets before the federal freeze! If the government seizes those accounts, I'm ruined!"
"You aren't just ruined, Madison," a cold, familiar voice echoed from the end of the corridor.
We all turned. Jason was being led down the hall by two marshals in orange jumpsuit attire, his wrists still cuffed, his hair unwashed, and his eyes wild with exhaustion. He looked at Madison with pure, unadulterated hatred.
"Jason!" Madison cried out, running toward him. "Tell them! Tell them the offshore accounts belong to me! Tell them you gave them to me legally!"
Jason sneered, pulling back as far as the handcuffs allowed. "Give them to you? You stupid little parasite, those accounts are loaded with embezzled federal grant money! The moment you claimed ownership of those proxy shares..."
Jason stopped, turning his head slowly to look directly at me.
His face drained of whatever color he had left.
"...the moment you claimed those shares," Jason whispered in absolute horror, "you legally inherited the primary liability for the entire fraud."
Madison staggered backward as if she had been physically struck, her legal files slipping from her trembling fingers and scattering across the marble floor.
May you like
Daniel leaned down, picked up the top document, and glanced at it before smiling warmly at the trembling mistress.
"Congratulations, Ms. Brooks," Daniel said smoothly. "You just signed your name as the primary co-conspirator on a fifty-million-dollar federal indictment."
