Chapter 13 - THE DINNER TABLE DEMAND
I stepped forward beside Lucas, looking directly into my brother’s cold, arrogant eyes.
"You always were a coward, Julian," I said, every word crisp and steady. "When Clara forged the custody papers and locked an eight-year-old boy in a cellar, you were the one who signed the offshore corporate guarantees to fund her lifestyle."
Julian’s face tightened in sudden anger. "Clara was family, Emily! You betrayed your own sister for a man who wasn't even living in the country!"
"Clara wasn't family, Julian," Lucas interrupted, his voice dropping like an iron sledgehammer. "Clara was a monster who chained an eight-year-old child to a fence in the rain and slapped him until he bled because he begged for food."
Julian scoffed, waving his hand dismissively. "The child was undisciplined! Clara did what any guardian would do to protect a family name from an illegitimate street brat!"
CLACK.
The sound of heavy tactical boots echoed across the stone terrace.
Stepping from the side portico was Chief Investigator Marcus Brody, accompanied by two armed Georgia State Troopers and Lead Forensic Auditor David Reed.
Auditor Reed laid a ruggedized tablet on the outdoor cedar table.
"Julian Vance," Auditor Reed announced. "For the past seventy-two hours, the Federal Grand Jury conducted a complete forensic blockchain analysis of your commercial shipping firm in Savannah."
Auditor Reed tapped the screen, displaying the decrypted banking manifests:
Finding 01: €4,200,000.00 transferred from Clara Vance’s illicit child-trafficking escrow directly into Julian’s private real estate holdings.
Finding 02: Unredacted email correspondence between Julian and Clara from two years ago, confirming Julian’s full knowledge of Leo’s illegal confinement in the Dawsonville sub-basement.
Finding 03: A wire authorization of two hundred thousand dollars to bribe a Fulton County probate clerk to forge the secondary estate deeds.
Julian’s face drained of every drop of color until he looked like an ash-gray corpse under the Georgia sun.
"Where... where did you get access to my private server?!" Julian stammered, backing toward his sedan.
"We didn't hack your server, Julian," Investigator Brody smiled coldly, stepping forward with a pair of heavy steel handcuffs. "Your sister Clara traded your server keys to the federal prosecutor forty-eight hours ago in exchange for two years off her minimum-security sentence."
Julian froze. The realization that his own sister had sold him out to save herself hit him like a physical blow.
Click. Click.
The sharp metallic ratchets locking around Julian’s wrists echoed across the silent terrace like an executioner’s gavel.
"Julian Vance, you are under arrest for federal money laundering, conspiracy to conceal aggravated child abuse, and interstate fraud," Brody announced.
May you like
As the troopers hauled my brother down the driveway in full view of the open valley, I leaned against Lucas’s chest, taking a deep, clean breath of the mountain air.
The last serpent had been removed from the garden.
