Chapter 11 - The Countermeasure
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I stood in the hallway, staring at the wall as Chloe's desperate, vicious threat echoed in my ear. A lesser man might have panicked. A lesser man might have paid the ransom to protect his public image and his company's stock price.
But I had not built a billion-dollar empire by bowing to terrorists.
"You have until midnight, Alexander," Chloe hissed through the phone. "Five million dollars. Or the world thinks you're a monster."
"You seem to be forgetting something very important, Chloe," I replied, my voice dropping into a register of absolute, terrifying calm.
"What?" she snapped.
"I told you three days ago," I reminded her slowly, "that I have thirty hidden cameras with audio recording capabilities positioned throughout my entire estate."
The line went dead silent.
"I have ultra-high-definition footage of you violently ripping a toy out of a six-year-old's hands," I continued relentlessly. "I have clear audio of you calling my children brats and screaming racial slurs at my housekeeper. And, more importantly, I just recorded this entire phone call where you attempted to extort me for five million dollars."
I heard a sharp, panicked gasp from the other end of the line.
"If you go to the press with a single fabricated lie," I promised, "I will not just release the footage to the media. I will hand the extortion recording directly to the District Attorney. You won't be worrying about paying back the Russian mob, Chloe. You will be spending the next ten to fifteen years in a federal penitentiary."
"Alexander, please—" her voice broke, the arrogant bravado completely shattering.
"Do not contact me again," I commanded.
I hung up the phone and immediately dialed Hector's number.
"Hector," I said as soon as he answered. "Contact our legal team. I want a preemptive restraining order filed against Chloe Hastings immediately. And forward the audio recording of the call I just had to our chief of security. We are locking down the company headquarters as well."
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"Understood, sir," Hector replied smoothly.
I slipped the phone back into my pocket, taking a deep, cleansing breath. The threat was neutralized, but I knew desperate people did desperate things. The game wasn't over yet.
