Chapter 8 - The Ghost in the Study
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the distant splashing of the lobby water feature.
Evelyn slid the phone back into her coat pocket, her chest heaving slightly as the residual adrenaline began to cool. She looked up at Julian, realizing with a sudden jolt of clarity just how deep she had just stepped into the shark tank.
"You planned this," Evelyn said, narrowing her eyes. "You knew he was embezzling from your subsidiaries, and you used me to corner him."
"I accelerated the timeline, yes," Julian admitted without a shred of hesitation, meeting her gaze head-on. "But let's be entirely honest with each other, Evelyn. You were already looking for an exit. I just handed you the key and opened the door."
"And what happens to me now?" Evelyn asked, crossing her arms defensively. "I walk out of my marriage, blow up my entire life, and become a pawn in your corporate war?"
"You aren't a pawn, Evelyn. Pawns get sacrificed on move four," Julian said, stepping closer until he was standing just inches away. His voice dropped to a low, intense register. "I need someone who knows every single skeleton in Dominic's closet, someone with the intellect to tear his empire apart from the inside out. In exchange, my legal team ensures you walk away with every single cent he's tried to hide offshore. You won't just survive this divorce; you'll own half of his portfolio."
Before Evelyn could process the staggering scale of the proposal, her phone buzzed again.
Not a call. A text message.
She pulled it out. It wasn't from Dominic. It was an automated security alert from their home bank: Alert: Large outgoing international wire transfer initiated from joint account ending in 4082. Amount: $1,250,000.
Evelyn’s blood ran cold. "He's stripping the accounts."
Julian didn't look surprised. He simply pulled out his own sleek, encrypted smartphone, tapped the screen twice, and looked up with a sharp, predatory smile.
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"Not anymore," Julian said smoothly. "My algorithmic freeze just locked every single corporate and personal routing number tied to his name. The accounts are frozen solid."
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