Chapter 6 - The Setup in Milwaukee
At 8:00 a.m. sharp on Thursday morning, Daniel parked his sedan across the street from the regional headquarters of Meridian Logistics in downtown Chicago. Next to him sat Elise, dressed in a sharp charcoal-grey business suit, her hair pulled back into a severe bun. She looked entirely different from the shattered woman who had wept on the kitchen stool twelve hours earlier.
Daniel reached across the center console and squeezed her hand. “Are you ready for this?”
“I’ve been terrified of them for four days,” Elise said, taking a slow, steadying breath. “I’m done being terrified. Let’s finish this.”
Daniel tapped his phone screen. On the line was Marcus Vance, an elite employment attorney and former federal prosecutor who had been Daniel’s closest friend since college. Daniel had called Marcus at dawn, laying out the entire paper trail: the cloud backup of the group chats, the lobby footage, the Meridian expense vouchers, and an affidavit Daniel had secured overnight through an early-morning call to the Hyatt Regency’s head of security.
The hotel security director, once confronted with the prospect of being subpoenaed in an ongoing federal wire fraud and sexual harassment investigation, had confirmed that Suite 412’s hallway camera footage remained fully preserved on their cloud servers. Furthermore, the hotel’s electronic door log proved that Elise had entered Room 412 at 11:46 p.m. and exited at 12:03 a.m.—a total duration of barely seventeen minutes—running toward the elevator in visible distress.
“Everything is in position, Daniel,” Marcus’s deep voice resonated through the car’s speakers. “I’ve already filed an emergency preservation of evidence order with the Cook County Circuit Court. I have a federal marshal on standby to serve the document preservation notices on both Owen Chase and Richard Chase simultaneously. The moment you walk into that executive suite, they are legally barred from deleting a single email or text message.”
“Understood,” Daniel said. “We’re heading in.”
They walked through the polished glass doors of the high-rise tower, their footsteps echoing with authority across the marble lobby. Elise flashed her corporate security badge at the turnstile, allowing Daniel to sign in as her legal and financial representative.
They took the express elevator straight to the forty-second floor: the executive terrace.
When the elevator doors slid open, the receptionist looked up with a polished corporate smile that instantly faltered when she recognized Elise. “Ms. Mercer? You aren’t on Mr. Chase’s calendar for this morning. He’s currently in the boardroom with Mr. Delaney and Mr. Reed reviewing the quarterly projections.”
“They’ll want to make time for this,” Elise said smoothly, not slowing her stride.
Daniel walked beside her as she pushed open the heavy frosted-glass doors of the main executive boardroom.
Inside, four men sat around an expansive mahogany conference table surrounded by leather chairs. Owen Chase sat at the head of the table, holding a coffee mug, laughing at something Mark Delaney was reading from a tablet. Jonah Reed was writing notes on a legal pad.
When the door swung open and slammed against the interior stopper, all three men froze.
Owen’s smile vanished instantly, replaced by a dark, arrogant sneer. “Elise? What is the meaning of this? You’re supposed to be on administrative leave pending the HR review.”
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His eyes flicked toward Daniel, studying Daniel’s tailored suit and cold, unblinking gaze. Owen’s lips curled into a smirk. “And who is this? Did you bring your husband to plead for your severance package?”
“No,” Daniel said, stepping into the center of the room and tossing a thick manila folder onto the polished mahogany table. The papers slid across the wood and stopped directly in front of Owen’s coffee cup. “I brought the evidence that’s going to send you and your brother to federal prison.”
