Chapter 5 - The Snake's Poisonous Retaliation
Cornered predators are at their most dangerous when they realize their survival is at stake.
By 6:00 PM that evening, as I was picking up Sophie from her temporary private daycare, my phone buzzed with an urgent notification from my security system app.
Someone was at the door of my temporary apartment downtown.
I checked the live video feed. It was Luc—Damien’s brother—accompanied by two men in dark leather jackets who looked less like legal aides and more like hired muscle. Luc was hammering aggressively on the door, holding a thick yellow envelope.
I immediately called my head of private security, Marcus—a broad-shouldered former tactical officer whom Laura Mercer had assigned to protect me and Sophie.
"Marcus," I said into the phone. "They’re at the apartment."
"I see them on the perimeter feed, Mrs. Vance," Marcus replied calmly from his unmarked SUV parked down the street. "We’re moving in now."
I drove Sophie to a safe location—Laura’s private townhouse—and left her with a trusted nanny before returning to the apartment building with Marcus and two of his men.
When we stepped out of the elevator onto the seventh floor, Luc and his two thugs were still standing in the hallway.
Luc turned around, his face twisted in a desperate, ugly sneer. "There you are, you bitch! You had Damien fired from his own firm?!"
"Luc," I said coldly, staying behind Marcus’s formidable frame. "You are violating a court protection order just by being in this building."
"I don't give a damn about your protection order!" Luc spat, waving the yellow envelope in the air. "This is a formal emergency petition for child protective intervention! My mother and I filed an affidavit with the court an hour ago claiming you are an addicted, abusive mother who severely injured Sophie to frame our family!"
I stared at him, marveling at the sheer, unadulterated evil of their desperation. They were willing to brand my daughter as an abused child at the hands of her own mother just to save their own skin.
"You brought two bribed witnesses to swear to that affidavit, didn't you?" I asked quietly.
"We have four witnesses!" Luc bragged, taking a step forward. "My mother, myself, Damien, and our neighbor! You’re going to lose custody of Sophie by tomorrow morning, Véronique! You’re going to watch us take her away, and there’s not a damn thing your fancy lawyers can do about it!"
"Luc," I said softly, pulling my phone from my pocket and tapping the screen. "Do you know what this app is?"
Luc blinked, confused. "What?"
"It’s a live cloud-audio feed connected directly to the central servers of the Department of Child Protection," I said, holding up the glowing screen. "Every word you just said—including your confession that you fabricated a false affidavit with four bribed witnesses—has been recorded, time-stamped, and transmitted to the Magistrate of the Family Court."
Luc’s face turned from red to an ash-gray ghost of shock. "You... you’re bluffing..."
"And furthermore," Marcus stepped forward, his massive hand coming down like an iron anvil onto Luc’s shoulder, twisting him around with terrifying ease, "you are currently trespassing on private property while making threats against a protected party."
CLICK. CLICK.
Marcus produced a set of heavy steel restraints, pinning Luc against the hallway wall before his two hired thugs could even react. The two thugs, seeing Marcus’s armed security team stepping out of the stairwell, immediately threw their hands in the air and backed away slowly.
May you like
"Let go of me!" Luc shrieked, his cheek pressed flat against the wallpaper. "Do you know who my mother is?!"
"A convicted child abuser and corporate fraudster by this time tomorrow," I murmured, stepping close to his ear. "Tell your mother I’m looking forward to her grand opening tonight. I wouldn't miss it for the world."
