Chapter 4 - Bleeding the Beast
Destroying the company was only half the mission. I wanted the house. I wanted the comfort they had stolen from me.
Elena loved luxury. She thrived on status. The townhouse was her castle, funded by the "tragic" payout of my life insurance and the hostile takeover of my assets. It was time to introduce her to poverty.
I contacted a man named Silas, a ruthless proxy lawyer operating out of a strip mall in Nevada. Silas didn't ask questions; he just filed paperwork with surgical precision. Using the funds from Tartarus Holdings, I had Silas buy up the debt profile of Vance Global, and more importantly, the mortgage of the red-brick townhouse, which Elena had foolishly refinanced to fund her lavish new lifestyle.
On a cold Tuesday morning, Elena was at her favorite high-end boutique downtown. I watched the transaction alert ping on my secondary monitor. She tried to swipe her platinum credit card for a $4,000 designer handbag.
Declined.
I hacked the store's security cameras. Elena laughed nervously, handing the clerk a different card.
Declined.
She pulled out her phone, dialing her bank. I routed the call through my own server, altering her voice pitch slightly and letting it go to the bank's automated fraud department. Her accounts weren't just frozen; they were under investigation for suspicious wire transfers—transfers I had simulated from offshore accounts blacklisted by the US Treasury.
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An hour later, Elena returned to the townhouse. Glued to the front door was a notice of foreclosure. Since the deed was tied to fraudulent signatures (a fact Silas had anonymously tipped to the title company), the bank was seizing the asset pending a federal review.
Julian’s car pulled up to the driveway. He stormed out, looking disheveled. Elena waved the foreclosure notice in his face, screaming. I couldn't hear the audio, but the violent gestures were poetry. The foundation of their betrayal was cracking under the weight of their own greed.
