Chapter 7 - Caleb Foster’s Seven-Figure Gamble Meets Federal Reality
Caleb dropped to his knees right there on the terrace floor, heedless of the dirt and crushed pine needles staining his thousand-dollar trousers.
“Audrey, please!” Caleb begged, his hands trembling as he reached out toward me, only to be blocked by the rigid stance of an armed Air Force security specialist. “I have two hundred employees! I have bank loans coming due on the downtown site next week! If the FBI freezes our optical permits, Foster Development goes bankrupt overnight!”
“Then I suggest you retain a very good criminal defense attorney,” I replied without a shred of malice, only the cold certainty of justice. “Because when the FBI looks into Apex Infrastructure, they won’t just find regulatory errors. They will find that your company accepted twelve million dollars in offshore shell funding to bypass Pentagon inspection protocols.”
Caleb buried his face in his hands, letting out a ragged sob that echoed across the quiet resort lawn.
Charlotte stood between her weeping niece and her broken protégé, looking like a cornered animal. Her eyes flicked wildly around the crowd of two hundred alumni who were watching her complete humiliation.
For twenty-five years, Charlotte had been the grand dame of Hamilton Ridge society. She had dictated who was invited to the country club, who received charity gala chairs, and who was ostracized. She had built her entire social standing on the myth of Vanessa’s untouchable legal genius and the supposed failure of her stepdaughter.
“You... you ungrateful little brat,” Charlotte hissed, her voice dropping into a venomous whisper that only I and Callahan could hear. “Your father would turn in his grave if he saw you destroying this family!”
“Do not speak of my father, Charlotte,” I said, my voice hardening into pure steel.
I stepped closer to her, lowering my gaze to her trembling right hand.
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“My father gave his life to public service as a small-town teacher,” I said. “He taught me that integrity is the only thing a person truly owns when everything else is stripped away. And speaking of my father...”
I reached out and gently took Charlotte’s wrist.
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