Chapter 4 - The Trap is Sprung
The next morning, the fallout hit the financial markets. Armed with the forensic data I had quietly compiled during my midnight shifts in the estate kitchen, Colonel Hayes transmitted a comprehensive dossier to federal investigators and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The files detailed months of illicit data transfer, insider trading, and corporate sabotage orchestrated jointly by Brianna Collins and her father’s inner circle.
Alexander found me in the estate’s east garden where I was packing my canvas duffel bag, my uniform replaced by a simple black tactical jacket and jeans. The morning sun cast long, sharp shadows across the manicured hedges.
"You're leaving," he stated, not as a question, but as a heavy, defeated observation.
"My contract here is finished, Alexander," I said, zipping the bag closed. "The house is safe, the leaks have been isolated, and your family's empire won't be dismantled by a shell corporation."
"Rachel, wait. I... I was blind. To everything. To her, to what my mother put you through, to the way this family treated you." He stepped closer, reaching out a hand as if he could anchor me to a world I had already outgrown. "Stay. Let us fix this. Let me make it right."
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"You can't fix a foundation built on glass," I replied, looking him dead in the eye. "You wanted a high-society marriage, Alexander. You got a corporate war instead. Learn from it."
Before he could answer, the crunch of gravel signaled the arrival of local authorities and federal marshals at the front gates. They weren't there for me. Sirens wailed as unmarked cruisers swept up the driveway to execute arrest warrants for Brianna and her father on charges of federal securities fraud and corporate espionage.
