Chapter 11 - VANESSA’S REVENGE
Marcus tightened his grip on Daniel.
“You are lying.”
Vanessa laughed through the speaker.
“You promised me ten percent.”
“The documents gave me two.”
“You were never supposed to read them.”
“That was your mistake.”
Vanessa had agreed to cooperate after learning Marcus planned to abandon her.
She provided passwords.
Bank accounts.
Recordings.
And the location of the private server receiving the stolen code.
Police had already seized it.
Marcus’s deletion countdown had been a bluff after the first three minutes.
The data transfer had stopped.
He had nothing left except the gun.
Vanessa continued.
“You told me Daniel would forgive anything if I cried.”
“You told me his mother was too sentimental to fight.”
“You told me Chloe would remain quiet.”
“You were wrong about all of us.”
Marcus looked toward me.
“I was not wrong about her.”
“She signed.”
I held up the document.
“No.”
“I wrote a title beneath my name.”
“I did not accept the transfer.”
The police negotiator moved closer.
“Put down the weapon.”
Marcus dragged Daniel backward.
“You think this company belongs to you?”
Daniel’s voice remained steady.
“No.”
“It belongs to the people who built it.”
Marcus laughed.
“That sounds like your father.”
“Yes.”
“For years, I thought that made him old-fashioned.”
“Now I understand it made him difficult to steal from.”
Marcus glanced toward the server-room door.
That moment of distraction was enough.
Daniel drove his elbow into Marcus’s ribs.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Police tackled Marcus.
Daniel fell behind the desk.
I reached him first.
His hands were shaking.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
I checked his face and neck.
There was no blood.
Officers led Marcus away in handcuffs.
He looked toward me.
“This is not over.”
I touched my uneven hair.
“For you, it is.”
The company’s systems returned within an hour.
No client networks were damaged.
The independent board restored Daniel temporarily but required a full investigation.
He accepted.
Marcus was charged with fraud, extortion, unlawful access, conspiracy, and assault.
Vanessa remained in custody.
Chloe was released after agreeing to testify.
The merger collapsed.
But the financial audit uncovered something none of us expected.
Millions had been transferred from Mercer Systems into a medical investment fund.
The fund paid the clinic that issued Vanessa’s contraceptive invoice.
It also paid for fertility treatments under another name.
Daniel read the patient record.
Vanessa Cole.
The treatment had taken place before the contraceptive implant.
One embryo had been created and frozen.
The listed father was Daniel Mercer.
May you like
He looked at me.
“I never agreed to this.”
