Chapter 4 - The Betrayal
I didn't go into the corporate office that day.
Instead, I drove to a nondescript diner on the outskirts of the city to meet with Silas Vance.
Silas wasn't just a private investigator.
He was a former intelligence operative who specialized in handling the dirty, unspeakable messes of the ultra-wealthy.
I slid into the vinyl booth across from him, the smell of cheap coffee masking the tension in the air.
"I need you to track my wife," I said bluntly, not bothering with pleasantries.
"Every phone call, every text, every location."
"She has an accomplice."
"I need to know who he is, and I need to know by tonight."
Silas didn't ask questions.
He simply nodded, took the encrypted hard drive I slid across the table, and walked out.
I spent the rest of the day in a luxury hotel suite I rented under a fake name, staring at the ceiling.
I had given Victoria the world.
I had elevated her from a struggling model to a society queen.
And her gratitude was a slow, agonizing death sentence.
At exactly 8:00 PM, my burner phone vibrated on the glass coffee table.
It was Silas.
"Check your secure email," his gruff voice commanded before the line went dead.
I flipped open my laptop, my fingers flying across the keyboard to decrypt the incoming file.
A series of high-definition photographs loaded onto the screen.
The first image showed Victoria sitting in a secluded booth at a high-end French restaurant.
She was leaning across the table, intimately holding the hands of a man.
I zoomed in on the man's face, my heart completely stopping in my chest.
The breath was forcefully knocked out of my lungs.
It was Marcus.
My Chief Financial Officer.
My college roommate.
The man who was chosen to be the godfather to my twin boys.
The betrayal cut so deep it felt like a physical blade twisting into my stomach.
Marcus knew everything about my finances.
He knew about the loopholes in my life insurance policies.
He knew exactly how to restructure my assets so that in the event of my unexpected death, Victoria would maintain absolute control.
They had planned this flawlessly.
They were going to murder me, send my children off to boarding schools, and rule my empire together.
I stared at the glowing screen for a long, torturous hour.
The sorrow and the shock slowly burned away, leaving behind nothing but pure, unadulterated vengeance.
I closed the laptop with a sharp snap.
May you like
They wanted a tragedy.
I was going to give them a massacre.
