Chapter 5 - The Trap is Sprung
The penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park was completely silent.
Julian Vance paced across the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a half-empty glass of scotch shaking in his hand. His phone buzzed violently on the marble coffee table. He lunged for it, swiping the screen.
“Sterling! Tell me you fixed this!” Julian shouted into the receiver before the line could even connect. “Some lunatic named Moretti just wiped out our entire asset portfolio! He seized the debt notes! He had federal marshals at my office by noon!”
“Calm down, you idiot!” Arthur Sterling’s voice crackled through the speaker, cold and venomous. “You botched the entire operation! You were supposed to secure the infant’s medical profile before filing for divorce. Now Moretti has possession of the M-17 file, and federal investigators are crawling all over our R&D lab in New Jersey!”
“I didn't know he was involved!” Julian yelled, panic clawing at his throat. “How was I supposed to know a street-fighting nobody was tied to Moretti Global?”
“Moretti isn't just a businessman, Julian,” Sterling hissed. “He’s the primary shadow shareholder of the city’s largest private security syndicate. If he has file M-17, he knows about the biotech synthesis. If he exposes it, we’re all going away for federal conspiracy and human trafficking.”
“Then what do we do?” Julian pleaded, his voice breaking. “We get the baby back! We use emergency court injunctions! We claim Clara is mentally unstable!”
“It’s too late for court injunctions,” Sterling said darkly. “We’re meeting at the private hangar at Teterboro Airport in two hours. We’re leaving the country. Bring whatever cash and bearer bonds you have left in the wall safe. If you show up empty-handed, consider yourself a dead man.”
The line went dead with a sharp click.
Julian stared at his phone, his hands trembling so violently he dropped the glass. It shattered against the hardwood floor, amber liquid splashing across his shoes.
He didn't care about the penthouse. He didn't care about Chloe, who had already blocked his number and fled to her parents in Connecticut. He only cared about saving his own skin.
He ran to the bedroom wall painting, wrenched it aside, and spun the combination lock on the hidden steel safe. The heavy door swung open, revealing stacks of hundred-dollar bills, bearer bonds, and a passport under a false identity.
May you like
He swept everything into a leather duffel bag, zipped it shut, and sprinted toward the private elevator.
Little did Julian know, the moment his finger had pressed the elevator call button, a quiet, encrypted alert had pinged on a secure terminal fifty miles away in the Moretti estate.
