Chapter 9 - The Weston Estate Breach
I stared at the blinking screen for three seconds before pressing accept and bringing the phone to my ear.
"Lucy!"
It wasn't George. It was Fiona, her voice shrieking through the speaker with unhinged, frantic panic.
"Lucy, you have to call off your lawyers! They just locked down the salon accounts! The commercial bank just seized our operating capital, and the landlord is threatening to evict us by morning! George is locked up in federal custody, and nobody is answering my calls!"
I walked slowly over to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out over the glittering expanse of the Manhattan skyline as the sun began to dip below the horizon.
"You and your brother spent months building an empire on stolen money and corporate fraud, Fiona," I said, my voice cutting through her hysterics like a razor blade. "Did you really think there wouldn't be a reckoning?"
"We're family!" Fiona sobbed, the pathetic defense rolling off her tongue like second nature. "We share the same blood! You can't just ruin our lives over a simple business loan!"
"It wasn't a loan, Fiona. It was theft," I replied coldly. "And speaking of family, your brother spent the last three days leaving my five-year-old daughter alone in a freezing house with a high fever while he played on the beach in Cape Cod. Consider yourself lucky that my lawyers are the ones dealing with you instead of the military tribunal I served under for eighteen years."
Before Fiona could scream another frantic protest, I hung up the phone and blocked the number permanently.
I turned back to Arthur, who was watching me with a look of profound, quiet admiration.
"Family drama?" Arthur asked dryly.
"Resolved," I said, setting the phone down on the desk. "Is the jet fueled? I need to fly back to Boston tonight. My daughter is waiting for me at home."
"The private hangar is prepped and waiting," Arthur replied, handing me a fresh, encrypted tablet containing the final operational sign-offs. "One last thing, Evelyn. There's a visitor waiting for you in the private lobby downstairs. He insisted on speaking with you personally before you left for the airport."
My brow furrowed. "Who?"
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"A man named Julian Rhodes," Arthur said, his expression turning slightly enigmatic. "He claims he has a proposition regarding the Weston estate and the remaining shell assets that could completely neutralize the rest of Alexander's network."
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