Chapter 7: The Cornered Snake
The fallout was catastrophic. Over the next three months, the financial and public destruction of Victoria Whitmore dominated the news cycle.
The SEC froze all of her assets. Whitmore Global Holdings was placed under federal receivership, and I was officially appointed by the board to manage the restructuring. I purged the company of every executive loyal to Victoria, replacing them with ethical, transparent leaders.
Victoria, denied bail on the federal charges due to the sheer magnitude of her flight risk and the financial fraud, spent her days in a stark, concrete cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
But a narcissist never truly surrenders.
A month before Audrey’s due date, Marcus Vance called me with alarming news. Victoria was attempting to orchestrate a hit from behind bars. She had promised a significant offshore payout to a prison guard if they could arrange for an "accident" to happen to Audrey before she testified in the upcoming criminal trial.
But Victoria’s arrogance was her downfall. The guard she tried to bribe was an undercover informant for the FBI, placed in the facility specifically to monitor her communications.
The recording of Victoria ordering the hit was the final nail in the coffin. The prosecution added Solicitation of Murder to her charges.
When I visited her in prison to deliver the news, I stood on the other side of the thick plexiglass. She looked haggard, her roots showing grey, her tailored suits replaced by a coarse orange jumpsuit.
"You did this to me," she hissed through the phone receiver, her eyes burning with a manic, unhinged hatred.
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"You did this to yourself," I replied calmly. "You thought power meant you could play God with people's lives. But you are just a sad, lonely woman in a cage. You will die in this facility, Victoria. And you will never, ever see your grandchild."
I hung up the phone and walked away, leaving her screaming silently against the glass.
