He Left His Pregnant Wife Unconscious on the Marble Floor, but Her Two Brothers Made the Entire City Watch Him Fall

By eight o'clock that morning, the rain had cleared, leaving New York City draped in a pale, freezing sunlight.

As Julian had predicted, Cole Maddox walked out of the NYPD precinct through a side exit, flanked by Arthur Vance and six private bodyguards. Thanks to an emergency hearing held at dawn before Judge Harrison—a man who had received two hundred thousand dollars in "charitable donations" from Maddox foundations—Cole had been granted bail.

He wore a fresh coat, designer sunglasses covering his bruised eyes, and a silk scarf wrapped around his neck to hide the marks where Julian had pinned him to the floor.

"The press is waiting at the penthouse, Cole," Vance warned as they stepped into a bulletproof Maybach. "We issued a statement saying Marissa suffered a tragic domestic accident due to preeclampsia, and that you are heartbroken."

"Good," Cole snapped, leaning back against the leather seat and wincing as his bruised knees throbbed with agony. "What about the video? Did your men wipe the server?"

"We tried," Vance said nervously, sweating despite the air conditioning. "But the upload went through a decentralized private network owned by Lane Global Security. We can't reach it."

Cole slammed his fist against the leather door. "Then buy them off! Find out how much Elias Lane wants! Everyone has a price!"

"I don't think Elias Lane wants money, Cole," Vance murmured softly.

"Shut up!" Cole snarled. "He's an FBI agent. If he leaks that audio without a judge's signature, he loses his badge and goes to prison himself. He won't risk his career."

The Maybach pulled up to the glass tower of Maddox Pharmaceuticals headquarters on Park Avenue.

Cole stepped out of the vehicle, putting on his arrogant, confident demeanor for the cameras. Today was supposed to be the proudest day of his life. At ten o'clock, the European conglomerate Aegis Global was scheduled to sign the final papers purchasing Vanthrex for five billion dollars, making Cole one of the youngest multi-billionaires in North America.

He walked into the towering glass atrium, expecting his employees to bow their heads as usual.

Instead, the lobby was dead silent.

Hundreds of employees were standing around the massive digital screens hanging in the main atrium. No one was working. No one was speaking. Everyone was staring up at the monitors with expressions of pure horror and shock.

Cole frowned, stepping toward the center of the lobby. "What is the meaning of this? Why aren't you at your desks?"

He looked up at the main screen.

It wasn't the Bloomberg ticker. It wasn't the company’s stock price.

It was a live broadcast from The New York Times, broadcasting directly across every major television network, social media platform, and financial terminal in the world.

Sitting in a news studio was Elias Lane in his full FBI dress uniform, beside Dr. Marcus Thorne, the former chief medical officer of Maddox Pharmaceuticals who had been fired six months prior for trying to blow the whistle on Trial 9B.

"Good morning," Elias’s clear, uncompromising voice echoed from the lobby speakers. "Three hours ago, federal agents executed a seizure order on the servers of Maddox Pharmaceuticals. What you are about to hear is an unedited audio recording taken from inside the private residence of CEO Cole Maddox at 2:15 AM today."

Cole’s heart stopped beating. "Turn it off!" he screamed at the security guards. "Turn the screens off right now!"

The guards didn't move. They stared at Cole with eyes full of disgust.

The audio began to play.

Through the high-definition speakers of his own headquarters, Cole’s voice echoed across the marble lobby, crisp, arrogant, and ruthless:

“You think pregnancy gives you power over me?” “Cole, please... my baby...” “You are not leaving this room.”

Then came the horrific sound of Marissa hitting the floor, followed by her desperate gasps for air.

The employees in the lobby gasped. Several women covered their mouths, tears springing to their eyes.

Before Cole could process the terror, the broadcast switched back to Elias.

"In addition to this evidence of felony assault," Elias continued calmly, holding up a thick stack of verified documents, "the FBI and the SEC have uncovered systematic fraud in Trial 9B. Eleven terminal cancer patients died during testing. Cole Maddox personally altered those records to inflate the company's valuation before today's scheduled five-billion-dollar buyout."

"No..." Cole whispered, taking three frantic steps backward. "No, no, no..."

His phone began to ring frantically in his pocket. Then Vance’s phone. Then the phones of every executive standing nearby.

Vance looked at his screen, his face completely bloodless. "It's... it's Aegis Global. They've pulled out of the buyout. The SEC has just frozen all Maddox family assets. The board of directors is holding an emergency vote to strip you of your CEO position."

Cole grabbed Vance by his lapels, his eyes wild with terror. "Fix it! You're my lawyer! Fix this!"

"I can't fix this, Cole!" Vance yelled, tearing himself away. "Look around you! You're finished!"