Chapter 7 - THE UNRAVELING"L-Lewis?" Richard Dudley stammered, scrambling backward against the desk. "How... how are you here? The police said..."
"The police are downstairs, Richard," Robert said, stepping into the room and closing the distance between them with slow, measured strides. "Along with the federal financial crimes division, the forensic team that pulled your wife's DNA from my daughter's fingernails, and the audio recording of your son discussing how best to throw my daughter off a hotel balcony."
Lewis’s face drained of every drop of color. He looked at Chloe, his eyes widening in sheer panic. "Chloe! Baby, please—you have to listen to me! My mother, she—she forced me! They threatened to cut me off, they—"
Chloe didn't say a word. She just walked slowly toward the desk, picked up the gold fountain pen that Lewis had dropped, and looked down at the $1.8 million condo deed bearing her name.
"You told your mother not to hit me too much in the face," Chloe whispered, her voice cutting through the silent room like a razor blade. "Because people would notice at breakfast."
Lewis choked on his own breath, stumbling back until his spine hit the glass wall. "Chloe, I swear to God—"
"You didn't swear to God, Lewis," she interrupted, her voice entirely calm. "You swore to a notary public. And now, you're going to swear to a federal judge."
Marcus stepped forward, clamping heavy steel handcuffs around Lewis’s wrists with a sharp, metallic snap.
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Richard Dudley lunged for his briefcase to grab the burner phone, but Robert intercepted him with a single, brutal shove that sent the older man crashing into the filing cabinets. Marcus’s partner instantly pinned Richard to the floor, reading him his constitutional rights as the metal cuffs bit into his wrists.
"It’s over, Lewis," Robert said quietly, looking down at his son-in-law as he was hauled toward the stairs. "Your debt, your family's empire, your freedom—it’s all gone."
