Chapter 24 - Closing the Circle
Eleanor turned on her heel and stormed out of the workshop, the brass bell clattering wildly behind her. The door slammed shut, echoing through the empty timber mill district.
My hands were shaking slightly—not from fear, but from the raw, white-hot adrenaline of restrained rage. I pulled out my phone and dialed Caleb Price immediately.
"Caleb. We have a leak," I said the second he picked up.
"Talk to me," Caleb's voice instantly shifted into tactical mode.
"Eleanor Vance just walked into my shop in Oregon. She’s carrying judicial credentials and an active mandate from the appellate network we thought we buried."
Silence hung on the line for three seconds before Caleb let out a low whistle. "Eleanor Vance? We checked her files during the initial sweep. Her firewall was clean. But if she’s moving personally, it means the upper-tier stakeholders are panicking. They’re running out of pawns."
"She threatened Nora," I said, every muscle in my body tightening. "She gave me an ultimatum: sign over custody to a Swiss trust, or they come for us."
"They won't get the chance," Caleb replied grimly. "I’ve been working with Agent Lin on a secondary forensic audit of the Cayman accounts. We found a direct wire trail linking Eleanor’s personal judicial chambers to the shell companies that funded Vanessa’s legal defense. She’s compromised, Ethan. I’m transmitting the evidence to the US Attorney General’s office within the hour."
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"Don't wait for an hour, Caleb. She just left my shop heading toward the highway. If she’s coordinating a strike, she’s doing it right now."
"Get home. Grab Nora. I’m sending an extraction unit to your location," Caleb ordered. "Do not stay in that house tonight."
