Vanessa’s manicured fingers clamped around the smartphone, her knuckles turning bone-white. The screen showed an active call. Time elapsed: 14 minutes.
He had heard *everything*.
“Ryan, baby, listen to me!” Vanessa choked out, her voice a desperate, high-pitched scramble. “She set me up! I was just—”
“Save it, Vanessa,” Ryan’s voice cut through the speaker, as cold and hard as the white marble floor beneath them. “My security team is already at the penthouse. Your bags are packed. You have ten minutes to collect them from the lobby before they’re thrown on the curb.”
Vanessa’s jaw trembled. Her eyes darted wildly to Catherine, who was calmly admiring her own reflection in the jewelry store’s mirrored wall.
“You… you can’t do this!” Vanessa hissed at the phone, her sweet facade permanently shattered. “Half of the new company assets are in my name! The offshore accounts, the real estate—we signed the transfer paperwork yesterday!”
Catherine finally smiled. It wasn’t a warm smile. It was the smile of a predator watching a steel trap snap shut.
“Actually, dear, you signed *my* paperwork,” Catherine said, her voice smooth as silk. She stepped toward the terrified younger woman. “Did you really think a self-made billionaire wouldn’t run a background check? I’ve known about your little corporate embezzlement scheme since October.”
Vanessa froze, the breath leaving her lungs in a sharp gasp.
“Those offshore accounts you thought you were draining?” Ryan added from the speaker. “They’re honey-pots. You didn’t steal my money, Vanessa. You just wire-transferred three million dollars directly into an FBI sting operation.”
Catherine gently retrieved her phone from Vanessa’s paralyzed grip. She tapped the glass of the display case, pointing at a breathtaking diamond necklace.
“You were right about one thing,” Catherine whispered, her gaze piercing. “Once you married him, you’d have had everything. But now? You don’t even have a ride home.”
Right on cue, the heavy glass doors of the jewelry store swung open. Two federal agents stepped inside.