Chapter 6 - The Financial Execution
For the next twenty-four hours, the grand library of Cade Manor was transformed into a war room.
Claire sat at a sleek laptop, surrounded by financial ledgers, routing numbers, and encrypted security codes she had memorized during her years of forced training under her father. Beside her, Roman’s chief financial officer, a quiet genius named Marcus, watched in absolute awe as Claire navigated through complex international banking layers.
"Here," Claire said, pointing at a red string of digital code on the screen. "This is the primary clearing account for Caruso Logistics. It's routed through a shell bank in Zurich under my mother's maiden name. My father set it up to evade federal taxes."
"Can you access it?" Roman asked, standing behind her chair, his hand resting reassuringly on her shoulder.
"I don't just have access," Claire said, her fingers flying across the mechanical keyboard with surgical speed. "I have the primary biometric override. My father registered my voice print five years ago as a backup executor."
Claire picked up a secure satellite phone linked to the bank in Zurich. She took a deep breath, cleared her throat, and spoke into the receiver in fluent, flawless French.
"Identification code 7-7-9-Alpha-Whitmore. Requesting immediate execution of Clause 4: Total asset freeze pending fraud investigation."
A digitized voice on the other end responded: “Voice print confirmed. Identity verified. Processing freeze on primary accounts.”
Claire hit enter on her laptop.
On the screen, three massive financial account balances—totaling over forty-two million dollars belonging to the Caruso syndicate—dropped to zero in real-time, transferred into an untouchable federal escrow account pending investigation.
Marcus gasped. "It's gone. Every cent Caruso had to pay his cartel debts... vanished."
Claire closed the laptop with a soft, satisfying click. She leaned back in her leather chair, looking up at Roman.
"Vincent Caruso is broke," Claire said quietly. "By sunrise, his own cartel backers will be hunting him for their money."
Roman looked down at her, his eyes filled with profound admiration and dangerous pride. He leaned down, placing a warm kiss on her forehead.
"Brilliant," Roman whispered. "My brilliant queen."
Suddenly, the heavy double doors of the library burst open.
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Elias rushed in, his face pale, his weapon drawn. "Boss! We have a breach at the eastern perimeter! Someone cut the security lines!"
Before Roman could react, the sound of glass shattering echoed from the floor below, followed by the terrifying, high-pitched scream of little Lily.
