Chapter 4 - THE TRAP IS SPRUNG
Viral Hook: The handcuffs clinked around his wrists, but Adrien Vane was still smiling. He knew the cage they built for him was about to fall on their own heads.“This is a mistake!” Olivia screamed, trying to push past the wall of police officers who had flooded the grand foyer of the Vane estate. “I’m here of my own free will! Nobody kidnapped me!”
A stern-looking detective in a trench coat, Detective Miller, stepped forward, holding a clipboard. “Miss Carter, please step back. We received a sworn statement from your former fiancé, Ethan Caldwell, and your landlord, stating that you were dragged from your apartment by armed men associated with Mr. Vane. We also have security footage of Mr. Vane’s vehicle leaving your apartment building with boxes of your belongings.”
“Because he was saving me!” Olivia cried, her eyes filling with tears of frustration. “Ethan’s men broke into my apartment! They ransacked it!”
“That’s a matter for a separate investigation,” Detective Miller said coldly, turning his attention to Adrien. “Adrien Vane, you are under arrest for kidnapping, coercion, and assault. Hands behind your back.”
Two officers stepped forward, their hands resting on their holsters, their faces pale with fear. They knew who they were arresting. They knew that arresting Adrien Vane was like trying to handcuff a hurricane.
Adrien stood at the bottom of the grand staircase, utterly calm. He didn’t resist. He didn’t raise his voice. He looked at the handcuffs in the officer’s hand as if they were a cheap piece of jewelry.
“Marcus,” Adrien said, his voice echoing clearly through the tense foyer.
“Yes, sir,” Marcus said, standing nearby, his hands folded in front of him.
“Ensure Miss Carter is comfortable. She is a guest in my home. If a single hair on her head is harmed while I am gone, I will hold everyone in this room personally responsible.”
The officers visibly flinched at the threat, which was delivered with the calm certainty of a weather forecast.
Adrien then turned his gaze to Detective Miller. “Miller. I believe your mortgage was paid off last month by an anonymous offshore account. We will discuss that in the interrogation room.”
Miller’s face went entirely white. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He quickly signaled his officers to cuff Adrien and lead him out.
As they dragged Adrien toward the police cruiser, he looked back at Olivia one last time.
“Do not worry, Olivia,” he said, his voice steady. “Write your stories. I will be back for dinner.”
The heavy iron doors of the manor closed, leaving Olivia standing in the quiet foyer, her heart aching with a strange, intense panic. She had only known this man for less than twenty-four hours, but the thought of him in a jail cell because of her was unbearable.
“Miss Carter,” Marcus said, stepping up beside her. “We need to move. Mr. Vane left specific instructions in case this happened.”
“He knew this would happen?” Olivia asked, wiping her tears.
“Mr. Vane plays chess three moves ahead of everyone else,” Marcus said, a faint smile on his face. “The Caldwells think they have cornered the king. They don’t realize they’ve just walked into his trap.”
Marcus led Olivia into Adrien’s private study. The room was lined with mahogany bookshelves and featured a massive desk with a bank of computer screens.
“What are we doing?” Olivia asked.
“We are going to give your ex-fiancé exactly what he wants,” Marcus said, typing rapidly on the keyboard. “A face-to-face meeting.”
“But he’ll try to take me!”
“He will try,” Marcus agreed, looking up at her. “But you won’t be alone. And this time, the entire city will be watching.”
Marcus opened a secure messaging app on the screen. A message from an unknown number appeared: “If you want Vane to walk free, bring the girl to the warehouse at Pier 42 tonight. No cops. Just Olivia. If she signs the retraction, Vane gets his life back. If not, he dies in prison.”
Olivia read the message, her blood running cold. “It’s a trap.”
“Of course it is,” Marcus said. “But it’s a trap we are going to spring. Mr. Vane has spent the last five years compiling a dossier on Caldwell Holdings. They have been laundering money through the port of Chicago for a decade. The warehouse at Pier 42 is where they keep their ledgers.”
Marcus handed her a small, elegant pen.
“What is this?” she asked.
“A voice recorder and a live-streaming transmitter,” Marcus said. “All we need is for Ethan to admit on tape that he fabricated the kidnapping charges to force you to sign the retraction. Once he does that, the charges against Mr. Vane drop, and the Caldwell empire crumbles.”
Olivia looked at the pen. Her hands were shaking again, but this time, it wasn’t from fear. It was from a sudden, fierce determination.
For years, she had been the victim in Ethan’s story. She had let him write her script, let him decide her worth.
May you like
Not anymore.
“Let’s do it,” she said.
