Chapter 4 - The Puppet Master's Fall
The boardroom erupted into absolute chaos.
Journalists gasped, cameras clicked at a frenetic pace, and several board members stood up so fast their chairs fell backward.
Marcus froze, his hand suspended in mid-air, the gold pen slipping from his fingers and rolling across the polished mahogany table. His face drained of all color, turning a sickly, ghostly gray. He looked at Sarah as if he were staring directly into the eyes of a specter.
"S-Sarah?" he stammered, his voice cracking. "No... that's impossible. You're... you're..."
"Dead?" Sarah finished his sentence, stepping slowly into the room. The clicking of her heels was the only sound in the sudden, suffocating silence. "Is that what you told everyone, Marcus? Is that what you told yourself so you could sleep at night?"
Elena stood up, her eyes wide with panic. "Security! Get this woman out of here! She’s an impostor! Sarah Mitchell is dead!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Ms. Vance," Detective Hayes said, stepping into the room behind Sarah, flanked by federal agents. "We have the perimeter secured. No one is leaving this room."
"What is the meaning of this?!" one of the elder board members demanded, looking between Marcus and Sarah. "Sarah, you're alive? What happened to you?"
"My husband wanted to celebrate our anniversary," Sarah said, stopping just at the foot of the table, looking down at Marcus. "He took me out on the Sound. He told me to look at the stars. And then, he shoved me over the side of the boat."
"That's a lie!" Marcus roared, finally finding his voice, though it was trembling with terror. "She's hysterical! She must have fallen and hit her head! She's making up wild stories to ruin me!"
"Am I?" Sarah smiled. She pulled her waterproof phone from her bag and plugged it into the boardroom's central media console. "Let's ask the jury."
Before Marcus or Elena could react, Sarah pressed play.
The boardroom’s surround-sound speakers blasted the audio. Marcus’s cold, arrogant voice filled the room, boasting about how Sarah went under like a stone, how he had rehearsed his tears, and how he and Elena would finally be free.
The journalists in the room gasped. The live feed was still running. Millions of people watching the financial news saw and heard the entire recording.
In a matter of seconds, the Mitchell Group’s stock price began a catastrophic, vertical plunge.
"You monster," the elder board member whispered, looking at Marcus with disgust.
Marcus looked at the television screens on the wall, watching his net worth vaporize in real-time. He looked at Elena, who was slowly backing away from him, her face pale.
"It was her!" Marcus suddenly shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at Elena. "She planned it! She told me we had to get rid of Sarah! She manipulated me! I loved my wife!"
Elena’s eyes flared with rage. "You pathetic coward! You were the one who pushed her! You wanted the money just as much as I did!"
"Arrest them both," Detective Hayes ordered.
The federal agents moved forward, clicking handcuffs onto Marcus’s and Elena’s wrists. As they dragged Marcus past Sarah, he stopped, his eyes bloodshot and wild.
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"You think you've won, Sarah?" he hissed, his voice venomous. "You've ruined the company. You've ruined my life. But you'll never be safe. I have resources. I have people. This isn't over."
Sarah looked down at him, her expression completely untroubled. "It is over, Marcus. For you."
