Chapter 8 - The Cornered Predator Strikes Back
At 10:00 AM on Monday, Derek was released on fifty thousand dollars bail, paid for by his mother Patricia who had to max out her second mortgage to raise the funds.
When Derek emerged from the precinct, he was immediately mobbed by dozens of reporters and camera crews shouting questions:
“Derek, did you embezzle two million dollars from your fiancée?”
“Is it true you were paying your mistress’s rent with your father-in-law’s money?”
“How do you respond to the cake smash video?”
Derek shielded his face, shoved past the microphones, and dove into Patricia’s modest sedan.
He didn't realize that his legal nightmare was only escalating. When they arrived at his luxury townhouse to collect his belongings, they found two armed private security guards and a locksmith changing the deadbolts. A notice pinned to the door stated that all contents inside were subject to a court-ordered preservation order pending forensic analysis.
Derek had no access to his designer clothes, his luxury watch collection, or his computer servers.
Furious and running on pure adrenaline and rage, Derek drove straight to the headquarters of Sterling Logistics, the company he founded and claimed to own outright.
He stormed into the 14th-floor executive offices, shouting for his administrative assistant. “Call our chief counsel! Get Vance disbarred! I want a restraining order against Claire Montgomery immediately!”
The office was eerily quiet. None of the employees were at their desks.
Instead, sitting at the head of the boardroom table was my father, accompanied by Harrison Vance, three forensic auditors from Ernst & Young, and two federal marshals.
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Derek stopped dead in his tracks. “What the hell are you doing in my boardroom, Richard?” he demanded, glaring at my father.
My father took a slow sip of his espresso, his expression cold as stone. “This isn't your boardroom anymore, Derek. It never was.”
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