Chapter 3 - The Mask Slips
For five agonizing seconds, Victor stared at the screen. The smooth, affable facade didn't shatter all at once; it cracked slowly, piece by piece, until a cold, calculating stranger stared back at me.
Slowly, Victor leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. The warmth vanished from his eyes, replaced by a chilling, predatory glare.
"You really had to go snooping, didn't you?" Victor whispered, his voice losing all its corporate polish. "I gave you everything, Julian. When Sarah died, I ran this empire for six months without taking a single dime of extra commission. I kept the stocks stable while you were drinking yourself to sleep in the dark. I earned every penny of that money."
"You stole it from people who can't afford a single lost meal, Victor!" I slammed my hand onto the table, the sharp crack echoing off the glass walls. "You stole from mothers! From people trusting us to give them an honest living!"
"Business is war, Julian!" Victor snapped back, his voice rising, matching my fury. "You inherited this throne; you didn't build it. You sit up here in your glass tower mourning a ghost while I grease the wheels that keep this entire machine moving! You think the board cares about a bunch of nameless housekeepers? If I hadn't skimmed from the bottom, we wouldn't have posted those record-breaking margins last quarter!"
"You're done," I said, pointing a finger toward the door. "Security is already downstairs. The federal authorities have the files. By noon, your assets will be frozen, and you’ll be sitting in an interrogation room."
Victor stared at me, his chest heaving, the vein in his temple throbbing violently. Then, slowly, a twisted, macabre smile spread across his lips.
"You think you can just throw me away like an old shoe?" Victor laughed softly, standing up and smoothing his lapels. "You forget, Julian. For the last two years, you signed every single corporate tax return digitally. Guess whose IP address was tied to the master authorization server when the offshore accounts were opened?"
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My blood ran cold.
"Me," Victor whispered, leaning over the table. "You're the sole owner, Julian. Legally, on paper, you're the mastermind behind the entire embezzlement scheme. If I go down... I’m taking you straight to hell with me."
