CHAPTER 7 — The Last Betrayal
CHAPTER 7 — The Last Betrayal
A week after the arrests, I thought the worst was behind me.
I was wrong.
Marcus knocked on my office door just after sunrise.
"There is someone insisting on seeing you."
"Who?"
He hesitated.
"Vanessa."
I stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
"I thought she was out on bail."
"She is."
"She says she has information you'll want to hear."
Against my better judgment, I agreed.
Vanessa entered looking nothing like the woman who had mocked me in the ballroom.
Her designer clothes were gone.
Her confidence had vanished.
Dark circles surrounded her eyes.
She placed a small envelope on my desk.
"I didn't come to ask for forgiveness."
"Then why are you here?"
She swallowed hard.
"Because your accident wasn't entirely an accident."
The room went silent.
Marcus immediately closed the door.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
Vanessa looked down.
"I knew Martin wanted you removed from the company."
"I thought he only wanted to ruin your reputation."
"I never knew how far he'd go."
She pushed the envelope toward me.
Inside were copies of text messages.
One read:
"The brakes will fail on the mountain road. If he survives, the wheelchair will finish the job."
Another was from an unregistered number.
"Make sure Vanessa keeps him distracted that evening."
My hands tightened around the papers.
I looked at Marcus.
He had already gone pale.
Vanessa began crying.
"I swear I never knew they planned to kill you."
"I thought it was just another business scheme."
I stood slowly.
"Why tell me now?"
She laughed bitterly.
"Because prison gives people time to realize what they've become."
"I can't undo what I did."
"But maybe I can stop the people who haven't been caught yet."
Marcus immediately called the lead detective.
Within an hour, investigators reopened the accident case.
Forensic engineers inspected the wreckage again.
This time...
They found what had been overlooked.
The brake line hadn't failed naturally.
It had been cut.
Deliberately.
The attempted corporate takeover had just become an attempted murder investigation.
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And Uncle Martin was no longer just a greedy businessman.
He was now the prime suspect.
