Chapter 6 - Champagne and Lies
Across town, in the private penthouse suite of the Grand Hyatt, Vanessa sat by the window overlooking the skyline. She was dressed in an expensive cream-colored silk robe, her five-month baby bump gently visible beneath the delicate fabric. On the marble coffee table rested an open bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling cider and two crystal glasses.
Her phone buzzed. It was an unsaved burner number.
"Is it done?" Vanessa answered eagerly, her voice dripping with greedy excitement. "Did that bitch finally bleed out?"
"Vanessa, shut up!" Daniel’s frantic voice hissed over the line. He sounded breathless, his words trembling with pure panic. "Get out of the penthouse right now! Take your bags and head to the private airstrip!"
Vanessa froze, the crystal glass stopping halfway to her lips. "What are you talking about, Daniel? What happened to the twelve million? What happened to the real estate company?"
"Ethan showed up!" Daniel practically sobbed through the speaker. "The feds are all over Hale! Hale folded like a cheap suit! They’re looking for you, Vanessa! The corporate fraud unit has already frozen the joint offshore accounts we set up in the Cayman Islands!"
"You idiot!" Vanessa screamed, her angelic facade crumbling into ugly, venomous fury. "You swore to me you had her completely fooled! You said she was just an emotional idiot who listened to everything you said!"
"She recorded us!" Daniel yelled back. "She recorded everything last night! Hale told the cops she had the entire conversation on her phone! Move, Vanessa! If they catch you with those corporate transfer deeds in your safe, we’re going away for twenty years!"
Vanessa slammed the phone down, her heart thumping against her ribs like a trapped bird. She threw off her robe, frantically rushing toward the bedroom closet where a Louis Vuitton duffel bag was already half-packed with diamonds, bearer bonds, and forged deed transfers Daniel had stolen from my grandmother’s estate vault.
She zipped the bag shut, swung it over her shoulder, and rushed to the suite door.
She turned the handle, pulled it open, and gasped.
Standing in the hallway were two female detectives and a federal prosecutor holding a manila folder.
"Vanessa Cole?" Detective Martinez asked smoothly, holding up her golden badge. "You're under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, wire fraud, and grand larceny."
Vanessa staggered back, clutching her belly. "You can't touch me! I'm pregnant! I have medical conditions!"
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"You can discuss your prenatal care with the county jail physician, Ms. Cole," Detective Martinez replied cold as ice, stepping forward and clicking the steel handcuffs around Vanessa’s manicured wrists. "Hands behind your back."
***
