Chapter 5 - The Snake Uncoils
News of the federal raid on Vance Enterprises hit the Manhattan financial news like an atomic bomb.
By six o'clock that evening, television crews were stationed outside the Vance Tower. Stock in Vance Enterprises crashed by seventy percent in after-hours trading. But Arthur Vance was a wealthy monster with deep roots, and within twelve hours, his high-priced legal machine managed to post a five-million-dollar emergency bail for both himself and his son.
I sat in the kitchen of my private, high-security apartment, pouring a cup of chamomile tea for Patricia. She looked different today—her bruised face was still healing, but the permanent posture of defeat that had weighed down her shoulders for thirty-two years had begun to lift.
Suddenly, my living room television broadcast flashed an urgent breaking news bulletin.
There stood Luca and Arthur outside the federal courthouse, surrounded by microphones. Luca was wearing his crispest tailored suit, holding his casted hand up dramatically for the cameras, tears brimming in his eyes in a masterclass of manipulative acting.
"My wife, Jessi, lied to us from the very beginning," Luca declared into the microphones, his voice cracking with emotion. "She married me for my family's wealth. When I discovered her secret past and confronted her on our wedding night, she violently attacked me, breaking my hand in cold blood. She is using my mother's mental instability to extort hundreds of millions from our company!"
Arthur stepped up to the microphone, his expression stoic and tragic. "My wife, Patricia, suffers from severe dementia. Jessi manipulated her into stealing corporate documents. We are filing a fifty-million-dollar defamation lawsuit, and we will not rest until this dangerous imposter is behind bars."
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Patricia gasped, setting her teacup down so hard it splashed onto the counter. "Dementia?! He's telling the world I'm insane!"
I smiled calmly, reaching over to tap my laptop keyboard. "Let him speak, Patricia. The higher a snake climbs up a pole, the easier it is for everyone to see its entire skin."
