Chapter 8 - The Cornered Beast
With the criminal conviction virtually guaranteed and federal asset forfeitures freezing the Hawthorne bank accounts, Vivian Hawthorne made one last desperate, reckless attempt to save her son.
Realizing that my forensic dossier was the cornerstone of the federal case against their financial empire, she hired a disgraced former private investigator to locate the secondary off-site backup server I kept at a cabin in the mountains.
On a stormy Thursday night, as I drove up the mountain path to retrieve additional documentation for the federal trial, my truck was rammed from behind by a heavy SUV.
The impact sent my vehicle spinning onto the muddy shoulder near a steep ravine.
The SUV stopped, blocking the road. A man stepped out holding a heavy metal pipe, accompanied by none other than Vivian Hawthorne herself, wrapped in a dark coat, her face pale with fanatic desperation.
"Give me the drives, Thomas!" Vivian shouted over the howling wind. "Give them to me, and I will ensure you and Claire leave this state with enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your lives!"
I stepped out of my truck, wiping a trickling line of blood from my forehead. The storm screamed around us, tree branches bending under the gales.
"You still don't get it, Vivian," I said, stepping forward onto the gravel. "You think everything in this world has a price tag. You think you can buy your son's freedom and pay off the souls you've destroyed."
"He is my son!" she screamed. "I built this empire for him!"
"You built an empire on misery," I said. "And it ends tonight."
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Before her hired enforcer could swing the pipe, flashing lights illuminated the mountain road from both directions. State troopers and federal marshals had been monitoring my vehicle's GPS location via a real-time duress signal I activated during the collision.
The enforcer immediately dropped the pipe and raised his hands. Vivian fell to her knees in the mud, weeping bitterly as federal agents placed her under arrest for obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and vehicular assault.
