Chapter 17 - The Ultimatum
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Daniel slammed his hands down on the glass table, a sudden flash of his old anger returning. “You can't just erase me! I built these houses! I know the contractors! You’ll fail without me!”
I didn't flinch. I reached out and slid a thick, manila folder across the smooth glass surface of the table until it stopped right in front of his hands.
“Open it,” I commanded.
He hesitated, then flipped the folder open. Inside was the finalized forensic accounting report, complete with copies of fraudulent invoices, wire transfers to Lauren’s personal accounts, and forged signature documents he had used to bypass my approval on company expenditures.
“That is a meticulously documented trail of federal corporate fraud,” I stated clinically. “My lawyer has packaged it neatly for the district attorney. It carries a minimum sentence of five to eight years in a federal penitentiary.”
Daniel went stark white, the anger instantly evaporating into sheer, paralyzing terror. “Sarah, please... you wouldn't send the father of your child to prison.”
“I won't have to,” I replied, pulling a second document from my desk drawer and sliding it toward him. “If you sign this.”
He looked down at the new document. It was a complete surrender of assets.
“You will sign over your remaining forty-nine percent of Harrison Custom Homes,” I explained, my tone leaving zero room for negotiation. “You will surrender your claim to the primary residence, and you will accept a one-time buyout of fifty thousand dollars to start a new life wherever you choose. In exchange, I will lock the forensic audit in a vault and the FBI will never see it.”
“You’re stealing my life’s work for fifty thousand dollars?” he gasped, horrified.
“I’m buying your freedom,” I corrected coldly. “And I’m protecting my daughter’s inheritance from a thief. You have exactly one minute to decide, Daniel. Sign the paper and walk out of here a free man, or leave it blank and walk out of here in handcuffs.”
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I placed a black pen on top of the document.
Daniel stared at the paper for a long, agonizing thirty seconds. He looked at me, realizing he had entirely underestimated the woman he had married. Defeated, broken, and terrified of a prison cell, he picked up the pen and signed his name, signing away his empire.
