Chapter 15 - The Unseen Ally Steps ForwardAs Adrian walked away into the crowd, broken and weeping softly into his hands, a warm hand gently touched my shoulder.
I turned to see Odessa Crane smiling faintly, holding a glass of sparkling champagne.
“You handled that with remarkable grace, my dear,” Odessa said, her sharp eyes following Adrian’s pathetic retreat. “Though I half-expected you to have him thrown into the fountain.”
“Throwing him in would imply he’s worth the water,” I replied, taking a sip from my own glass. “Let him live with the museum of his own mistakes. It’s a much crueler punishment than prison.”
“Speaking of punishments,” Odessa said, her expression turning serious, “there is one final loose end from the Vanguard fiasco. Marcus Vance’s former legal counsel, a man named Julian Thorne, has been quietly gathering documents to challenge our acquisition of the Vance assets.”
“Julian Thorne?” I frowned. “He’s brilliant, but he’s notoriously corrupt. What’s his angle?”
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“He thinks he can prove you used insider information from your marriage to orchestrate Adrian’s downfall,” Odessa warned. “He’s filing an emergency injunction in federal court tomorrow morning.”
My heart skipped a beat—not out of fear, but out of absolute tactical thrill. “Let him file it. I kept every single encrypted email, every voice memo, and every metadata log from the last nine years. He’s walking right into a perjury trap.”
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