Chapter 6 - CRUMBLING EMPIRE
The collapse of Ethan Blackwell was not a slow leak. It was a catastrophic, deafening explosion that echoed across the global financial markets. By Monday morning, the news cycle was saturated with the downfall of Blackwell Industries.
I sat in my newly purchased penthouse overlooking the ocean in Santa Monica, sipping a hot latte while Julian sat across from me, reading the headlines aloud with vicious glee.
"FBI RAIDS BLACKWELL TOWER. SEC INVESTIGATING MASSIVE FRAUD AND OFFSHORE EMBEZZLEMENT. BILLIONAIRE FACES RICO CHARGES." Julian tossed the newspaper onto the glass coffee table and laughed. "It's beautiful. It's absolute poetry. When the feds realized he had defaulted on the tech merger, they looked into the capital flight. The anonymous tip we sent them with his forged signatures on the shell companies sealed the deal."
"And the money?" I asked, looking out at the crashing waves.
"Laundered cleanly through five international privacy jurisdictions and deposited into the new holding company. Your holding company. You are now officially worth twelve point five billion dollars, Emily. Completely untraceable to his fraud, entirely legal under the proxy loopholes he himself established."
My phone buzzed on the table. It was an unknown number, but I knew who it was. I answered it, putting it on speaker.
"Emily." Ethan's voice was unrecognizable. It was cracked, hoarse, and dripping with desperation. Sirens wailed faintly in the background of his call.
"Hello, Ethan."
"The feds are tearing apart my house," he choked out. "They froze all my domestic assets. My credit cards are declining. Vanessa... Vanessa took my emergency cash from the floor safe and left. She got in a cab and just left me."
A cold smile touched my lips. "Loyalty is expensive, Ethan. You should have known she was only renting space in your life."
"Please," he begged, a billionaire reduced to a whimpering child. "Emily, I know it was you. I don't know how you did it, but I know it was you. I'm going to prison. They're talking about twenty years. Please, you have to give it back. I'll give you everything. I'll rewrite the divorce. I'll give you half the company!"
"You don't have a company anymore, Ethan. And I don't want half. I already took it all."
"I'll kill you!" he suddenly screamed, his fear snapping into a psychotic rage. "I will find you, you insignificant little waitress, and I will tear you apart!"
"Good luck with that," I said calmly. "Your security detail quit this morning. I hired them. Marcus sends his regards. Goodbye, Ethan."
I hung up the phone and dropped it into a glass of water on the table, destroying the sim card. I looked over at Julian, who was watching me with a mixture of awe and deep respect.
May you like
"He's going to try to run," Julian noted.
"He won't make it to the airport," I replied. "I canceled his passport an hour ago."
