Chapter 6 - The Weight of Scorn
Ashley had disappeared into the shadows of the city after Weston’s arrest, but like a festering wound, she refused to stay buried. I found her one rainy Tuesday, shivering in a cheap motel on the outskirts of town. She wasn't the polished woman who had flaunted my coat months ago; she was a shell, abandoned by the man she had sacrificed her integrity for.
When I knocked on the door, she didn't open it until she heard the sound of my security team’s heavy boots. When she did, her eyes darted toward the door, searching for an escape.
"Weston is done," I said, stepping into the cramped, smelling room. "He’s facing twenty years for the medical fraud alone. You, on the other hand, are an accomplice who has nothing to lose."
She gripped the edges of a moth-eaten blanket. "What do you want, Elena? You already have everything."
"I want the truth about the offshore accounts he kept hidden from the prosecutors," I said, laying a folder on the stained bed. "He left you with nothing. But if you give me the digital keys to the last of his hidden assets, I’ll ensure you have enough to disappear. You can start over, somewhere where nobody knows your name."
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Her laughter was hysterical, broken. She realized that the man she had betrayed me for had been nothing more than a parasite. She reached under the mattress and pulled out a thumb drive. "He thought he was the smartest person in the room," she whispered. "He never realized he was just the loudest."
I walked out of that room with the final piece of the puzzle. I had successfully dismantled every remnant of his influence. The empire was safe, and the architect of my misery was finally silenced by his own greed.
