Chapter 5 - The Corporate Execution
The sun was barely beginning to peek over the horizon, painting the sky in shades of bruised purple and pale orange, when the glass doors of Sterling & Associates Corporate Headquarters swung open. Employees were just beginning to trickle in with their morning coffees, chatting quietly about the usual office gossip, completely unaware of the absolute storm brewing inside the executive suites.
I sat in the passenger seat of Julian Vance’s black tinted town car parked across the street, holding a steaming cup of black coffee. Dressed in a sharply tailored charcoal pantsuit with blood-red lipstick, I looked less like the timid, overlooked housewife Mark had left behind at home, and more like an executioner.
At exactly 8:55 AM, three unmarked federal vehicles and two black SUVs pulled up directly in front of the building's main entrance. Four men in dark suits bearing federal law enforcement credentials stepped out, flanked by Julian’s lead senior associate carrying a thick stack of court-ordered subpoena documents.
My phone rang. It was Mark.
I let it ring three times before sliding my thumb across the screen to answer, putting it on speaker so Julian could listen in from the driver's seat.
"Sarah!" Mark’s voice blasted through the speaker, frantic, breathless, and laced with sheer panic. "Where are you? Why aren't you answering my texts? The police—federal agents are in the lobby! They just stormed my office! They're asking about offshore accounts, they're freezing our assets, they're talking about arrest warrants—"
"Breathe, Mark," I said calmly, taking a slow sip of my coffee. "You're panicking. That's not very classy of you."
"Shut up! This isn't a joke!" Mark screamed over the phone. In the background, I could hear the muffled shouts of corporate security, the heavy thud of footsteps, and the authoritative voice of a federal agent demanding access to the server room. "You were supposed to be home! What did you do? Did you say something to Eric? Did you leak something?"
"I didn't leak anything, Mark," I replied smoothly. "Truth has a funny way of coming out when you build your entire life on a foundation of lies and theft."
"Sarah, please," Mark’s voice cracked, dropping into a desperate, pathetic whine. "You have to help me. Call your lawyer friends, do something! If they arrest me, my career is over. I’ll go to prison for twenty years!"
"Don't worry, Mark," I whispered into the phone, watching through the tinted glass as two federal agents escorted a pale, handcuffed man out of the revolving glass doors of the building. Even from a distance, I could see the absolute devastation written all over his face. "You won't be alone. I heard Vanessa’s husband Eric is filing for divorce today too, and he’s freezing all of her accounts as well. You two can share a prison cell—or at least commiserate about your lack of class."
I hung up the phone without waiting for his reply.
Julian let out a low whistle, shaking his head with a mixture of amusement and profound respect. "Remind me never to get on your bad side, Sarah. That was a masterpiece."
May you like
"It's just business, Julian," I said, tossing my empty coffee cup into the console bin. "Now, let's go handle the divorce proceedings. I want every single asset transferred into a clean account by this afternoon."
***
