Countdown
I was lying on the floor, clinging my stomach in terrible pain, but despite the bloody lips I managed to smile.
They didn’t know that I had already poisoned his father’s company from the inside, and the FBI raid, which I helped prepare, was planned exactly for the 14th.
I looked at the broken watch.
It was 13:59.
At exactly 13:59 I was lying among the destroyed remains of my own baby shower.
My husband Julian stood over me, embracing his twenty-two-year-old mistress and smiling like a conqueror.
After he brutally pushed me away, there was a dead silence all over the room.
A second earlier, I was standing in a light blue dress, eight months pregnant with our expected baby.
Moments later, I flew backwards, falling into silver balloons and a tower of cupcakes stacking up in the inscription:
HELLO, BABY.
I immediately covered my stomach with my hands.
“Julian,” I said breathlessly. “How could you?”
He calmly corrected the expensive cufflinks.
“You embarrassed me.
Chloe, standing next to him, almost muttered, smoothing her flat stomach.
“She really shouldn’t have screamed, Jules.
I screamed because he shamelessly brought her to our house.
Because his mother had a moment earlier tapped a glass and told all the guests:
“A woman has finally appeared who can give this family what she deserves.
Julian’s father, billionaire Arthur Vance, took a step forward.
“Enough of these scenes, Clara. You’ve always been too emotional for this family.
To my dismay, his wife Beatrice slowly and deliberately clapped.
After a while, Arthur joined her.
Two rich monsters applauded while I trembled on the floor.
Julian looked at me with contempt.
“She’s the one wearing the real heir, you infertile garbage.
I should have cried.
Begging.
Falling to pieces.
Instead, a slow, icy smile appeared on my face.
Julian flinched.
For the first time that afternoon, I looked completely calm.
He did not know that for fourteen months I acted inside his father’s corrupt empire as an invisible, neglected wife.
He didn’t know that I had given the federal investigators every illegal ledger and information about all the shell companies.
He certainly didn’t know that the massive FBI raid was scheduled exactly for the 14th.
I looked at the broken watch.
13:59.
“Julian,” I whispered, and my voice echoed across the quiet room. “You really should have checked who you married…”
PART 2
Julian crouched beside me, smelling of expensive perfume and betrayal.
“What did you say?”
I swallowed the pain until it turned into a fire.
“I said you made a mistake.
His face hardened.
“The only mistake was marrying a poor girl with a damaged uterus.
Chloe’s horny.
That laughter ruined something in me.
He tore off the last delicate part that I still kept for Julian.
For six years I stood by his side at the galas, smiled despite the insults and let his parents treat me like a piece of furniture.
I ignored Beatrice’s remarks about my “flawed blood.”
I put up with Arthur calling me “nice enough, but useless.”
I forgave Julian for the cold, absence and lies.
But I have never forgiven stupidity.
A Julian był tak głupi, że uważał moje milczenie za kapitulację.
Na zewnątrz rozległa się odległa syrena.
Arthur noticed her first.
Odwrócił głowę w stronę okien.
Dostrzegłam błysk w jego oczach.
Not yet fear.
Rozpoznanie.
Słyszał już ten dźwięk w salach zarządu, w których upadali jego wrogowie.
Julian nadal odgrywał swoją rolę.
— Proszę państwa — oznajmił, rozkładając ramiona. — Przepraszam za tę scenę. Moja żona od zawsze miała problem z zazdrością. Dzisiaj zaatakowała niewinną kobietę w ciąży.
Chloe szeroko otworzyła oczy i przytuliła się do niego.
Roześmiałam się.
Bolało tak bardzo, że na krawędziach pola widzenia pojawiły się czarne plamy, ale mimo to się śmiałam.
Szczęka Juliana drgnęła.
“What’s so funny to you?”
— Ćwiczyłeś tę przemowę — powiedziałam. — Ale zapomniałeś o kamerach.
Część 3: Wybija czternasta
Julian zamarł.
Jego arogancki uśmiech zachwiał się, gdy wzrok powędrował ku górnym narożnikom wysokiego sklepienia.
“The monitoring system was shut down for the duration of the party,” Beatrice said calmly, although tension could be heard in her elegant voice.
Poprawiła perły i spojrzała na mnie z pogardą.
— Przestań próbować nas zastraszać, Claro. Niczego nie masz.
— Kamery w domu rzeczywiście nie działały — wydusiłam, unosząc się do pozycji siedzącej pomimo ostrego, pulsującego bólu promieniującego przez plecy i biodra.
Ochronnie objęłam brzuch i poczułam mocne, szybkie kopnięcia dziecka.
Wytrzymaj, maleństwo.
Just a few more seconds.
I looked straight at Chloe, whose hand was still resting on her flat stomach.
— Nie mówię o kamerach w domu, Jules. Mówię o diamentowej broszce, którą twój ojciec podarował matce na trzydziestą rocznicę ślubu. Tej samej, którą uparła się, żebym dziś założyła, aby wszyscy zobaczyli, jak „hojna” jest rodzina Vance’ów.
Dłoń Beatrice natychmiast powędrowała do obojczyka, gdzie na jedwabnej sukience błyszczała misternie wykonana platynowo-diamentowa broszka.
“A hidden high-resolution camera,” I whispered, and my bloody smile became wider. “With a live satellite broadcast directly to the Department of Justice’s Department of Financial Crimes.” They saw every second. They heard your father call me trash. They heard Julian admit to pushing the woman away in her eighth month of pregnancy. And most importantly, they heard you admit to using foreign tax havens three minutes before cutting the cake.
All the blood flowed from Arthur’s face.
“What did you say?”
Come on, go.
The bell at the door didn’t sound like the visitor’s announcement.
Natychmiast zagłuszył go potężny huk tarana rozbijającego wielkie podwójne mahoniowe drzwi wejściowe.
— FBI! Nikt się nie rusza! Zostać na miejscach!
W sali rozległy się krzyki.
Fifty guests from the upper realms began to retreat in panic, spilling old champagne and knocking over floral compositions.
A squad of armed federal agents in full tactical equipment stormed inside.
They were holding their rifles.
They were followed by civil investigators carrying entire piles of federal search warrants.
The team was headed by senior special agent Marcus Thorne with a thick leather binder in his hand.
Julian reflexively retreated.
Był blady jak kreda.
Ścisnął ramię Chloe tak mocno, że zapiszczała z bólu.
— Tato… co to jest? Powiedz im, kim jesteśmy!
Arthur moved forward, taking the customary, imperious attitude from the boardroom.
“Officer, my name is Arthur Vance. It’s a private property, and the gentlemen are intruding on…
“Sippy, Mr. Vance,” Agent Thorne interrupted him, without even looking at him.
He nodded at the tactical team.
— [Secure the area.] No one’s leaving. Immediately take over all phones, laptops and hard drives.
Agent Thorne walked right past the billionaire and bewildered guys, then kneeled by me.
His raw face immediately softened as he summoned waiting paramedics in the lobby.
“Claro,” he said softly, holding my back. “We received a sound transmission.” You all right?
“The child,” I said, as tears finally flowed down my cheeks out of pure pain. “He pushed me away.” I have to go to the hospital.
Thorne raised his head sharply and looked at Julian with an icy, lethal intensity.
Rescuers! Immediately stretcher! The highest priority!
Part 4: The Fall of the Empire
When the medical team moved on with the stretcher, complete chaos broke out in the room.
Beatrice was screaming as the agent took her phone and unbuttoned her diamond brooch, securing her in a transparent evidence bag.
“You can’t touch me!” Do you have any idea who my lawyers are?
“Your lawyers are just getting simultaneous search warrants for their Manhattan offices, Mrs. Vance,” Agent Thorne replied, getting up and pulling out a thick file of arrest warrants from his coat pocket.
He turned to Arthur.
“Arthur Vance, you are arrested on suspicion of participating in organised criminal activity, telecommunications fraud, large-scale theft, and a conspiracy to tax evasion totaling four hundred and fifty million dollars.
Arthur’s jaw trembled.
“No… you don’t have a financial trace.” The facade companies in the Cayman Islands are completely invisible!
“They were invisible,” I honked from the stretcher as the paramedics carefully picked me up, put on an orthopaedic collar, and checked the baby’s heart rate with a portable monitor. “Until I had been digitally rewriting your private books for fourteen months, Arthur.” Every bribe to city inspectors, every fake insurance claim, every fictional foreign foundation… everything is on a secure server in Washington.
Julian looked at me with his eyes wide open, filled with naked horror.
He looked like a man who had just understood that the docile domestic cat he had been digging for six years was actually a panther.
“Clara…” he stuttered, taking a step towards the stretcher, with his hands trembling so tightly that he couldn’t control them. “Honey… please.” You’re my wife. We can talk about this. I… I didn’t want to push you. I was stressed! The child…
“Don’t you dare touch her,” Agent Thorne growled, standing between him and the stretcher.
He pulled another warrant.
“Julian Vance, you are arrested for corporate forgery, large-scale fraud assistance, and severely beating a pregnant woman.
Two agents grabbed Julian by the shoulders and hit him with his face against the marble buffet table.
Exactly in crushed cakes with the inscription WELCOME, LITTLE.
Steel handcuffs slammed tightly on his wrists.
“Jules! Do something!” Chloe yelled, retreating towards the patio door. “I have nothing to do with it!” I’m just his girlfriend!
An investigator blocked her path and lifted the tablet.
Miss Chloe Sterling? You’re also coming with us. We have wiretaps where you discuss the bribe system related to Julian’s additional shell company account last Tuesday.
“What?” Chloe yelled.
I saw a flash in his eyes.
Not yet fear.
Recognition.
He had already heard that sound in the boardrooms where his enemies fell.
Julian continued to play his part.
“Please ladies,” he announced, spreading his arms. “I’m sorry about this scene.” My wife has always had a problem with jealousy. She attacked an innocent pregnant woman today.
Chloe opened her eyes wide and hugged him.
I laughed.
