Chapter 5 - The Rat’s Trap
The grand hall fell into a profound, suffocating silence.
Only Adrian and I remained standing amidst the wreckage of his shattered empire. His custom suit, once a symbol of his untouchable status in the city’s high society, now looked like a cheap costume worn by a man drowning in quicksand.
Adrian slowly slid down the side of the mahogany sideboard until he hit the marble floor, his legs refusing to support his weight. He looked up at me, tears streaming freely down his cheeks, mixing with sweat and desperation.
“Victoria...” he choked out, his voice cracking pathetically. “Please... I’m begging you. It was a mistake. I was stressed, the board meetings were failing, Vanessa got into my head... I didn't know. If I had known who your father was—if you had just told me—!”
“If I had told you who I was, you would have married me for my inheritance instead of convincing yourself you were a self-made titan,” I replied, looking down at him with absolute detachment.
“I love you!” he sobbed, clawing weakly at the hem of my blood-stained blouse. “We’ve been married for three years! Remember our wedding? Remember the vows we took?”
“You remembered them so well that you brought a mistress into our home, let her insult me at dinner, and whipped me twenty times with a leather crop,” I reminded him coldly.
Adrian opened his mouth to speak, but his phone buzzed one last time.
With trembling fingers, he pulled it out. A breaking news alert flashed across the screen from the city’s largest financial daily:
BREAKING: Vale Global Declares Emergency Bankruptcy Amid Federal Fraud Investigations; CEO Adrian Vale Faces Immediate Arrest on Multiple Felony Counts.
Adrian dropped the phone. It shattered against the marble floor, the screen splintering into a spiderweb of dead pixels.
“It’s over,” Adrian whispered, staring blankly at the broken glass. “Everything I built... everything I worked for... gone in five minutes.”
“You built nothing, Adrian,” I said quietly. “You were just a tenant living in a house built by my father’s goodwill. And now, the lease has expired.”
Marcus stepped forward, holding a pair of sleek, silver electronic cuffs. “Mr. Vale, the local authorities have been bypassed under federal national security provisions regarding corporate espionage and asset sabotage. You are coming with us.”
Two guards hauled Adrian to his feet. He didn't fight back. He looked like a hollow shell of a man, his spirit utterly broken as they dragged him toward the exit.
Just before they pushed him out the door, Adrian raised his head one last time, his eyes wide and hollow.
May you like
“Your father...” he whispered hoarsely. “Is he... is he coming?”
As if on cue, the heavy iron gates at the end of the estate’s long driveway swung open, announcing the arrival of a sleek, bulletproof Maybach bearing diplomatic plates.
