Chapter 7 - The Ambush at the Office
The elevator chime echoed through the empty marble corridors of my firm’s forty-third floor.
It was 5:30 p.m. I had ordered all my staff to leave early at four, knowing that a cornered predator always returns to the scent of prey. Only Marcus, Sarah, and two off-duty armed security officers from my private detail remained in the office.
The heavy glass double doors of the reception area swung open with a violent shudder.
Daniel Mercer walked in.
He looked unhinged. His expensive tailored suit was rumpled and stained, his tie undone, his eyes rimmed with bloodshot fury. But behind him stood a man I had never seen before: a heavy-set, thick-necked man in a black leather jacket with a scar tracing his left jawline.
Victor Vance.
"Evelyn!" Daniel yelled, his voice echoing off the glass walls. "Evelyn, get out here right now!"
I stepped out of the central conference room, flanked by my two armed security guards, their hands resting firmly on their holstered Glock 17s. Sarah and Marcus stood a few paces behind me, Marcus holding a tablet that was streaming our closed-circuit feeds directly to the CPD command center.
Daniel stopped when he saw the guards. His jaw twitched.
"You called the cops on my family," Daniel hissed, taking a step toward me before the nearest guard drew his weapon to a low-ready position. Daniel froze. "You had Brooke thrown in a cage! You put a hold on my bank account! You told that scumbag judge I coerced you!"
"You did coerce me, Daniel," I said, my voice steady, resonant, filling the expansive room with absolute authority. "You forged a quitclaim deed to my home. You stole my company's identity. And you assaulted me six hours after we signed a marriage license."
"That was a private matter!" Daniel yelled, his voice cracking with hysteria. "We are married! Everything you have belongs to this family! You took a vow!"
"I took a vow before a county magistrate under false pretenses," I replied. "And thirty minutes ago, Judge Elizabeth Hayes of the Cook County Circuit Court signed an interlocutory order granting an emergency annulment based on criminal fraud in the inducement. We are not married, Daniel. In the eyes of the law, our marriage never existed."
Daniel’s face twisted into an expression of sheer disbelief. "No. No, that’s impossible. You can't just undo a marriage in twenty-four hours!"
"I can when the petitioner is a forensic expert who caught your fake notary admitting on wiretap that she stamped the deed without my presence," Sarah Sterling announced, stepping forward with a sheaf of legal documents. "Cheryl Vance rolled over twenty minutes after Brooke was booked. She cut a deal with the Cook County State's Attorney in exchange for immunity on the notary fraud charge."
At the mention of his sister’s name, Victor Vance stepped forward, shoving Daniel aside with enough force to send him sprawling against a glass partition.
"Cheryl did what?" Victor growled, his voice deep and gravelly.
"Your sister saved her own neck, Mr. Vance," I said, turning my eyes directly onto the loan shark. "And if you don't step out of my office in ten seconds, the six CPD tactical officers currently waiting in the fire stairwell will take you into custody for criminal trespass, violation of an active protective order, and attempted extortion."
Victor Vance looked at the armed guards, then at Sarah Sterling, and finally down at Daniel, who was trembling on the floor.
"You told me she was a soft mark, Daniel," Victor said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "You told me she was a rich girl who would pay any debt just to keep her name out of the papers."
"Victor, please!" Daniel begged, scrambling to his knees, his hands clasped together. "She has twenty million in liquid assets! Look at this office! She can write a check right now! Just make her sign the release for the First Midwest account!"
"I’m not signing anything, Daniel," I said coldly. "The First Midwest account has been seized by the Illinois Department of Financial Regulation as proceeds of a crime. That $187,000 isn't yours. And it isn't Victor's anymore either. It's evidence."
Victor Vance took a long, slow breath. He was a criminal, but he was a survivor. He knew when a hand was completely busted.
He reached into his leather jacket, pulled out a thick cigar, and tossed it onto my carpet.
"Good luck, Daniel," Victor said quietly. "You owe me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars with penalties. If it’s not in my hands by midnight tomorrow, I’m taking your father’s house. Every single brick."
Victor turned on his heel and walked toward the elevators, not looking back once.
"Victor! Victor, don't leave me!" Daniel screamed, scrambling toward the door.
The security guards stepped forward, blocking his path.
"Daniel Mercer," one of the guards said, clicking a fresh pair of cuffs. "Stay on the ground. CPD is already in the building."
Daniel looked up at me from the carpet of my corporate lobby. The man who had struck me across the face twenty-four hours ago to "teach me my place" was now sobbing like a broken child, tears mixing with the dust of the floor.
"Evelyn... please," he whimpered. "We can fix this. I love you. I swear I love you. My mother... my mother pushed me into this. She told me you had to be put in your place or you’d never share the money. It was her idea! She planned the whole thing!"
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"I know," I said softly, looking down at him with nothing left inside me except complete, crystalline indifference. "That’s why the police are at her house right now."
***
