Chapter 6 - The Shadow ProsecutorThe room went dead silent.
Marcus staggered back a step, slamming his back against the wall, his eyes wide in total horror as he stared at his own brother’s face on the screen.
“No...” Marcus whispered, his voice cracking. “Richard... my God...”
On the video, Richard Vance pulled a heavy brass paperweight off my father’s desk and struck him viciously across the side of the head. My father crumpled to the floor, unconscious and bleeding profusely.
Then, the door to the study opened on the video, and Victor walked in, pale and trembling.
“What did you do?!” Victor screamed on the tape.
“Shut up and help me!” Richard barked coldly, his voice echoing through the speakers with horrifying clarity. “He was going to ruin us both! Go downstairs, get the kitchen knife from Caroline’s block. We’re going to frame her. She’s depressed, she’s been arguing with him all week—the cops will buy it in a heartbeat. I’ll make sure I’m assigned as the lead prosecutor to guarantee the conviction.”
The video played on, showing the terrifyingly methodical way Richard Vance and Victor Hayes orchestrated the crime scene, wiping surfaces, dragging my father’s body to the kitchen, and placing the bloody weapon under my sleeping mother’s bed.
I sat there, frozen, watching the absolute destruction of my family planned out like a business transaction.
“He didn't just frame her,” I choked out, tears of rage blinding my eyes. “He stole six years of her life... he almost had her executed!”
Marcus dropped to his knees, burying his face in his hands, weeping openly. “My brother... is a monster. I spent six years thinking he was a champion of justice...”
Maya immediately began copying the encrypted files onto three separate hard drives. “We have to get this to the Federal Bureau of Investigation right now. If Richard finds out we have this video, he won't just kill you—he’ll burn this entire building to the ground.”
Suddenly, the lights in the basement room flickered and died.
The emergency backup red lights kicked on, flooding the room in a bloody crimson hue.
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A heavy, metallic thud echoed from the staircase outside the heavy steel security door.
“They tracked your phone signal,” Maya hissed, grabbing a concealed handgun from beneath her desk and throwing a flash drive into my hands. “Go! Out the back escape tunnel! NOW!”
