Chapter 19 - The Trap is Set
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Dr. Mercer’s warning echoed in the room long after Dr. Shah disconnected the burner phone.
A man like that does not let his property walk away.
"We have enough to go to the police," Evelyn said fiercely, pacing the floor. "We have the forged documents. We have Dr. Mercer's testimony. We have the burns on your body. David is compiling the data broker evidence right now."
"It's not that simple," Priya interjected, rubbing her temples. "Data manipulation on this scale is a federal crime. If local police confront him, he’ll wipe his servers before they can get a warrant. We need the FBI."
"Then we call the FBI," I said, my voice finding a strength I didn't know I possessed. The terrified, obedient wife who had been carried into this hospital was dead, burned away by the boiling water Luke had poured on her.
Over the next forty-eight hours, my hospital room transformed into a war room.
David arrived from three states away, bringing a thick briefcase full of corporate dossiers. He had bypassed local authorities and gone straight to a contact at the FBI's cybercrimes division.
Federal agents interviewed me quietly in the middle of the night to avoid suspicion. They took photographs of my burns, collected the forged intake forms, and bagged the empty pill organizers David and the police had raided from my house under the guise of a domestic violence sweep.
"They're freezing his assets," David told me, sitting beside Evelyn at the foot of my bed. "They're raiding his firm's servers tomorrow morning at dawn. It's over, Caroline. He can't hurt you anymore."
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I looked at the window. It was raining outside, the water sliding down the glass in jagged streaks. It should have felt like a victory. But a cold, lingering dread settled in the pit of my stomach.
Luke was a man who planned for every contingency. He wouldn't just sit in his empty house waiting for the police to knock.
