Chapter 6 - THE TRAP CLOSES
Benedict watched the footage with silent, terrifying intensity. Every lie Evelina had told over the last two hours was laid bare in high-definition thermal imaging.
Evelina looked at the tablet screen, her face drained of all remaining color. She slowly backed toward the stage exit, her hands trembling as she reached behind her back for her purse.
"Marcus," Benedict said, his voice flat and deadly. "Lock down the estate perimeter. Nobody leaves. Not a single vehicle moves past the main gates."
"Already done, sir," Marcus replied. "The local police and federal investigators are already entering the driveway."
Evelina’s eyes widened in horror. "Police? Benedict, no! You can't do this to me! Think about the Sterling stock price! Think about the scandal! If the media finds out your fiancée murdered your first wife and tried to auction off your daughter, the company will collapse!"
"The company will survive," Benedict said coldly, walking toward her with slow, deliberate steps. "You will not."
Desperate, Evelina whipped a small silver key out of her purse—the key to the private underground vault where the Sterling family kept high-value bearer bonds and emergency cash.
"I have the codes to your offshore accounts, Benedict!" she yelled, her voice echoing wildly. "My father and I installed backdoors into your corporate network three months ago! If you arrest me, my father will hit the wipe switch! You’ll lose hundreds of millions of dollars in liquidated assets within five minutes!"
Benedict didn't even pause. He pulled his smartphone from his pocket, tapped the screen once, and placed it on speaker.
A calm, professional male voice came through the speaker: “Mr. Sterling, this is Federal Agent Miller. We have just raided the Vance corporate headquarters in downtown Manhattan. Richard Vance has been taken into custody for grand embezzlement, corporate espionage, and conspiracy to commit murder. All their secondary servers have been seized and isolated.”
Evelina dropped the silver key. Her knees gave out, and she hit the hard parquet floor with a dull thud.
"You... you knew?" she whispered, staring up at Benedict in disbelief. "You already knew before tonight?"
"I didn't know about the vase, or the letter, or Orla’s true biological mother," Benedict admitted, his dark eyes burning with ruthless intelligence. "But I have known for two months that you and your father were draining my company funds. I let you stay close to me to catch every accomplice in your network. Tonight, you handed me everything I needed on a silver platter."
Outside, the distant blare of police sirens began to cut through the quiet night air, echoing up the long winding driveway of the St. Claire Estate.
Red and blue lights flashed through the tall arched windows of the grand ballroom, casting eerie, shifting shadows across the shattered porcelain on the floor.
May you like
"Get her out of my sight," Benedict ordered without looking back at her.
Two armed security officers stepped forward, seizing Evelina by her arms and hauling her off the floor as she screamed and kicked, her emerald dress tearing against the floor as she was dragged away into the flashing police lights.
