Chapter 9: The Confrontation at the Settlement
The suffocating atmosphere inside the Salazar & Associates conference room fractured completely as the billionaire at the back of the room, Alejandro Mendoza, finally rose slowly to his feet.
Diego’s sharp, cruel smile vanished instantly, his navy-suited frame stiffening as Alejandro adjusted his charcoal cuffs and stepped into the light of the rain-streaked windows. The high-priced lawyers at the front table completely stopped speaking, their pens hovering frozen over the un-dried documents.
"The transaction is closed, Diego," Alejandro said, his voice dropping into a flat, clinical register that carried the heavy authority of an owner foreclosing on a bankrupt asset. "The skyscraper you are sitting inside belongs to the Mendoza conglomerate. The digital certificates you cloned to siphon NovaLink's employee reserve funds were flagged by Vanguard's internal compliance servers at midnight."
Before Camila could pull her eyes from her display terminal, the heavy mahogany doors clicked open. Two federal marshals stepped onto the carpet, flanked by four uniformed state police officers.
"Diego Ramirez," the lead officer announced, unclipping a heavy set of steel links from his utility belt. "You are under arrest for grand larceny, systematic wire fraud, identity forgery, and corporate embezzlement ring manipulation."
Diego staggered backward against the gloss mahogany table, his Rolex catching the dull blue light of the police radios as his fingers frantically tapped his screen—only to find an un-yielding federal preservation order had permanently liquidated his entire cash profile.
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"Isabella... wait," he rasped, his face turning an ugly shade of translucent grey as the steel links turned firmly around his wrists. "This is a corporate misunderstanding... we can restructure the balance sheets out of court... we are family..."
I didn't answer him. I left his black Amex card spinning empty on the wood grain, adjusted my cream cardigan, and walked out to the elevator banks beside my father. The ledger was balanced.
