Chapter 4 - The Betrayal Within the Firm
The handcuffs clicked around Brittany’s wrists with a cold, metallic snap that echoed through the quiet library.
My father tried to step forward, his hands reaching out. "You can't arrest her! She’s a victim here! Some company tricked her!"
"Mr. Vance," Agent Vance said coldly, "your daughter actively signed a contract with Apex Holdings agreeing to deploy a hardware interceptor in exchange for a one-million-dollar debt cancellation. We have the digital communications recovered from her secondary phone."
As Brittany was led out of the library, sobbing hysterically, my mother collapsed into a chair, wailing loudly.
My father turned his fury toward me.
"Are you happy now, Maddie?" Richard spat, his face contorted in anger. "You brought this military hardass into our lives, and now your sister is going to prison! You could have stopped this! You could have paid off her debt!"
David stood up slowly.
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't make a threat. He simply stepped into my father's personal space, his imposing six-foot-two frame casting a long shadow over Richard.
"If you speak to my wife like that again," David said, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying growl, "you will find out exactly how cold a federal investigation can get for accomplices."
Richard flinched, stepping back until his legs hit the leather sofa.
"David," I said gently, touching his arm. "Let him talk. He’s showing everyone who he really is."
I turned to Agent Vance. "The bug inside the box... it required a secondary local receiver within five hundred yards to process the encrypted handshake before relaying to the offshore server."
Agent Vance nodded. "Our technical team is sweeping the estate perimeter right now."
My phone buzzed in my clutch bag. It was a high-priority alert from my firm’s Chief Information Security Officer.
I opened the message and felt my stomach drop again.
“Maddie, we detected an unauthorized remote login attempt using your master credentials three minutes ago. The IP address was traced to an executive terminal inside our Manhattan headquarters.”
I looked up at David and Agent Vance.
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"Brittany wasn't working alone," I said, a cold realization settling into my mind. "She didn't have the technical knowledge to program that hardware interceptor."
"Someone inside my firm set this up."
