Chapter 6 - The Fall of Kyle Mercer
"Sign right there, Mr. Mercer," Marcus Vance instructed, pointing a manicured finger at the bottom of the document. "And state for the audio record that Norman Miller was of sound mind when he granted you this power."
Kyle grinned, leaning over the paper. "Norman Miller fully authorized this transaction to resolve his daughter's severe legal troubles," he lied smoothly, his Montblanc pen gliding across the paper, leaving a bold, black signature.
"And... notarized," Marcus said, pressing his official state seal into the paper with a sharp clack.
On the screen in the command trailer, Detective Miller spoke into his radio: "Execute. Execute. Execute."
In the glass conference room on the 14th floor, Richard Vance tapped his tablet screen. "The wire transfer is initiating now, Kyle. Congratulations, you're a multi-million—"
BOOM!
The heavy double doors of the conference room burst open with a deafening crash.
"FEDERAL AGENTS! POLICE! DON'T MOVE! PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE TABLE!"
Six heavily armed officers, wearing black tactical vests with POLICE and IRS-CI emblazoned across their chests, flooded into the room, firearms raised.
Susan let out a ear-piercing shriek, knocking her chair over as she tried to scramble into the corner. "What is this?! What's happening?!"
Kyle froze, his Montblanc pen hovering in mid-air, his face draining of all color until he looked like a corpse. "Hey! Wait! This is a private business transaction! You can't be in here!"
"Kyle Mercer, Richard Vance, Marcus Vance, and Susan Mercer!" Detective Miller announced loudly, stepping into the room with his badge held high. "You are all under arrest for Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Aggravated Elder Abuse, Grand Larceny, and Filing Fraudulent Legal Instruments!"
"This is a mistake!" Richard Vance shouted, his slick confidence instantly dissolving as an officer slammed him face-down onto the glass conference table, pulling his arms behind his back. "I am an attorney! Call my legal team!"
"You have the right to remain silent, Richard," Miller said coldly. "Though I suggest you save it for the grand jury."
Kyle was pushed down into his leather chair, his hands dragged behind his back and secured with heavy steel handcuffs. "Officer, listen to me! My father-in-law authorized this! It's for my wife! My wife was arrested in Salt Lake City! I was saving her!"
I stepped through the shattered conference room doors, walking slowly, deliberately into the room.
My high heels clicked against the hardwood floor with absolute precision. David Vance walked right beside me, holding a court injunction folder.
Kyle’s eyes locked onto me, and his jaw dropped so low it looked dislocated.
"C-Chloe?" he gasped, his voice squeaking like a terrified child. "Chloe! Thank God you're here! Tell them! Tell these officers about Utah! Tell them you needed the three million for your legal defense!"
I stopped two feet from where he sat cuffed in the chair. I slowly took off my dark sunglasses, looking down at him with an expression of pure, unadulterated contempt.
"I was never arrested in Salt Lake City, Kyle," I said, my voice cutting through the chaotic room like a razor blade. "I closed a forty-million-dollar industrial contract. I was sitting in our living room yesterday afternoon when my father was on his knees cleaning floor stain while your mother and sister mocked him."
Kyle blinked, processing the words as his entire world fractured into pieces. "You... you knew?"
"I knew the moment I looked into my father's eyes," I said softly, stepping closer. "He didn't dropped that food because he was careless, Kyle. He dropped it because his hands were shaking from the terror you put into his heart. You made a sixty-seven-year-old widower believe his only daughter was going to rot in a federal prison unless he gave you his home."
"Chloe... please!" Susan sobbed from the floor, where an officer was cuffing her wrists. "It was Kyle's idea! I didn't know! I'm an old woman, Chloe! Don't let them take me to jail!"
"Shut up, Susan," I said without even looking at her. "You ate grapes and watched him scrub the floor. You called his life work 'the countryside smell.' You deserve every single day you're about to spend in a state penitentiary."
"Chloe, honey, I love you!" Kyle began to cry, fat tears rolling down his pale cheeks as he tried to lean toward me. "I did it for us! So we could be rich! So you wouldn't have to work twelve hours a day anymore! Please, tell them not to press charges! We're married!"
"Not for long," David Vance stepped forward, sliding a legal folder onto the table directly in front of Kyle's face. "Kyle Mercer, you have been officially served with papers for an emergency divorce filing, an immediate freeze on all joint marital assets, and a temporary restraining order. Mrs. Mercer has also filed a civil fraud lawsuit against you individually for five million dollars in punitive damages."
Kyle stared at the divorce papers, his lips trembling, completely broken.
"Take them away," Detective Miller ordered.
As the officers pulled Kyle, his mother, and the two corrupt loan officers out of the room, Kyle looked back over his shoulder, screaming my name.
May you like
"CHLOE! PLEASE! CHLOE!"
I turned my back on him, walked over to the mahogany table, picked up my father's stolen power of attorney document, and ripped it cleanly into four pieces.
