Chapter 4: The Isolation of the Traitors
Chapter 4: The Isolation of the Traitors
The legal and financial execution of the conspirators was swift, clinical, and total. By 5:00 PM, the atmospheric pressure inside the Sterling corporate headquarters had shifted permanently.
In a stark, gray interview room within the federal building downtown, Anastasia sat on a cold metal bench. The silk slip she had worn so smugly hours earlier was covered by a coarse, standard-issue gray wool blanket. Her manicured hands trembled violently, the heavy iron handcuffs rattling against the metal table anchor.
The heavy door swung open, and Chloe stepped inside. She was no longer wearing the white lace gown; she wore a tailored, midnight-black power suit, her hair pulled back into a severe, flawless undo.
"Chloe, please!" Anastasia wept, her venomous smile completely replaced by frantic, hyperventilating desperation. "Julian set me up! He told me the codes were clean! We can make a deal—I have files on the offshore routing numbers his family used!"
Chloe sat down opposite her, placing a leather folder on the table with a dull, definitive thud.
"There are no deals, Anastasia," Chloe said, her voice dropping into a sub-zero register. "The files you think you have are the ones I fed to you. Every account number, every dummy corporation, and every digital signature you copied was digitally watermarked by federal investigators three months ago. You aren't a player in this game; you were the bait."
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Anastasia stared at her, her face draining of color so fast she looked like a phantom. "You... you knew? From the very start?"
"I knew the moment you recommended Julian's family for the logistics merger," Chloe replied, leaning forward, her eyes locking onto her former friend with a lethal intensity. "You sold your loyalty for a percentage of a stolen fortune. Now, you’ll spend the next fifteen years in a federal facility learning that my friendship was the only real asset you ever had."
