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“Did he threaten you in writing?”
“Emails. Voice notes. Photos. I saved everything.”
“Good girl.”
“But we can’t cancel,” she sobbed. “He’ll ruin us.”
“Then we won’t cancel it.”
Mara stared at me. I looked at her reflection, then at the marks on her back.
Victor Vale arrived at the rehearsal dinner like a man who already owned the next day. He wore a silver tie, a crocodile smile, and the confidence of someone who had bought judges, bankers, and silence. Elian stood beside him, handsome and hollow, his hand resting too tightly on Mara’s waist. When I walked in, Victor lifted his glass.
A few guests laughed, because wealthy cowards always knew when to laugh on command. I smiled.
Elian leaned toward me.
“Try not to make a scene tomorrow. Mara needs at least one stable woman in her family.”
“Your parents built a sweet little company. Such a shame how fragile small businesses can be. One missed payment, one nervous investor, one rumor…”
My father went pale. My mother lowered her eyes. I took a sip of wine.
Victor chuckled.
Across the table, Elian whispered something into Mara’s ear. I could not hear the words, but I saw her fingers close around her napkin until her knuckles turned white. I excused myself before dessert. In the hotel bathroom, I locked myself inside a stall and opened the encrypted folder Mara had sent me. Photos. Threats. Voice recordings. Elian laughing while explaining exactly how Victor would crush our family.
Contracts showing my parents’ company trapped under predatory loan terms. Then I reached the file that made my pulse slow. A wire transfer schedule. Victor Vale had not only threatened my parents. He had been using their company as a laundering channel—fake vendor invoices, offshore accounts, campaign donations funneled through shell firms.
My parents had signed documents they did not understand, trusting a man who had planned to use them as disposable shields. I called the one person Victor should have feared.
“Clara?” Agent Naomi Price answered.
“Remember the Vale file?”
There was a pause.
“The one we couldn’t close because no insider would testify?”
“I have the insider now. And evidence of assault, extortion, coercion, wire fraud, and money laundering through a family business.”
Naomi’s voice changed.
“Where are you?”
“At the wedding venue.”
“Of course you are.”
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