Chapter 5 - Playing the Game
Clara refused to be a victim. She cleaned up the glass, boarded up the window, and went straight to Victor’s corporate headquarters in the city center. She bypassed his secretary and marched right into his office, slamming her flour-stained apron onto his desk.
"No more playing defense, Victor," she declared, her eyes blazing. "Julian Thorne is trying to destroy us from the outside in. He ruined my bakery, he’s terrorizing our children, and he’s dragging your family’s name through the mud."
Victor stood up, startled by her intensity. "Clara, I am working with my legal team, but Thorne has covered his tracks—"
"Then we don't play by his rules," Clara interrupted, leaning over the desk. "He wants the shipping contracts because they are valuable. But why are they valuable? Because of the secret deep-water routes your father secured. What if we make those routes useless to him?"
Victor’s eyes widened as he realized what she was suggesting. "You want to bait him."
"I want to destroy him," Clara corrected. "We offer him the contracts. We make him think he has won. But we leak the transaction to the federal maritime authorities ourselves, setting a trap. When his ships try to use our ports for smuggling, the federal agents will be waiting."
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Victor stared at his wife, a slow, proud smile spreading across his face. "It's incredibly risky, Clara. If the trap fails, we lose everything."
"If we do nothing, we lose each other anyway," she said softly, reaching out to cup his cheek. "We do this together."
