Chapter 12 - The Final Operative"What loose end?" I asked, narrowing my eyes against the salty sea breeze.
Marcus pulled out his phone, tapping the screen to display a live surveillance feed from a maximum-security prison visiting room two hundred miles inland.
On the small screen, Vanessa sat across a thick glass partition from a man I had never seen before—a tall, sharp-featured attorney wearing an expensive bespoke suit, sliding a confidential document across the tray.
"That's Richard Vance, Julian's estranged nephew and a high-powered corporate litigator," Marcus explained. "While Julian and Grant are taking the fall publicly, Richard has been quietly filing emergency injunctions to claim the remaining shell company assets under a loophole in your old corporate charter."
I clenched my fists. "They're still trying to steal the trust fund Ruth set up for community outreach."
"Worse than that," Marcus replied grimly. "They're planning to sue you for criminal negligence, claiming you staged the house fire to commit insurance fraud and frame your own family."
The sheer audacity of it took my breath away. From behind bars, my daughter and her co-conspirators were orchestrating one last desperate counter-attack to destroy what was left of my name.
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"We can't let them reach trial," I said, a cold, unyielding resolve settling deep into my bones. "How do we stop Richard?"
Marcus smiled faintly, a dangerous edge appearing in his eyes. "We don't fight him in court, Arthur. We play their game. We let Richard think he's winning until he walks right into our trap."
