Chapter 6 - The Lover in the Penthouse
Bradley Thorne stepped in front of Vivienne, attempting to summon the shreds of his legal arrogance as he pointed a trembling finger at me.
“Marcus Vance, you have zero jurisdiction in this proceeding!” Thorne shouted, waving the probate decree.
“Judge Harrison ratified this conservatorship seventy-two hours ago; any interference with these assets constitutes felony contempt of court!”
I did not even look at Thorne; I gestured slightly with two fingers to Luca.
Luca walked up onto the stage, tossing a heavy titanium thumb drive and an unsealed federal warrant onto the mahogany podium directly in front of the microphone.
The gigantic eighty-foot projection screens suspended behind the stage flickered to life in brilliant 8K resolution.
Projected across the entire ballroom was the unredacted digital audit of Bradley Thorne’s offshore banking pipeline in the Cayman Islands.
The charts clearly traced forty-five million dollars in embezzled Vance Maritime funds moving into Thorne’s private holding company over the past six months.
Beneath the financial records was an intercepted audio recording captured inside Thorne’s private penthouse forty-eight hours prior.
Thorne’s slurred, arrogant voice boomed through the ballroom’s state-of-the-art sound system with horrifying clarity:
”Once the probate judge signs the transfer at the luncheon today, we’ll move the kids from the cellar to that private sanitarium in Mexico.”
”We’ll tell Marcus the children ran away from home in their grief, and by the time anyone investigates, the funds will be liquidated into Swiss gold.”
The three hundred high-society guests gasped in collective, horrified revulsion, several board members backing away from the stage in utter disgust.
Vivienne began to hyperventilate, clutching her emerald gown as the entire room looked upon her with unadulterated hatred.
“Bradley, you fool!” Vivienne shrieked, turning on her lover with manic fury.
“You swore those communication lines were encrypted by the Russian servers!”
“They were encrypted, Vivienne,” I said, stepping up onto the stage and looming over the two trembling conspirators.
“Until my cyber-division bypassed your firewalls at three o'clock this morning.”
Thorne dropped to his knees on the stage, weeping pathetically as he realized that his legal career, his wealth, and his freedom were completely annihilated.
“Marcus… please! It was Vivienne’s idea!” Thorne cried, pressing his hands together in desperate supplication.
“She told me Julian was going to divorce her and leave her with nothing! She was the one who bought the satellite override software!”
I looked down at the disgraced attorney with cold, unyielding pity.
May you like
“You helped a monster starve a six-year-old boy with a broken leg, Bradley.”
“And for that, there is no court on this earth that can save your soul.”
