Chapter 14 - The Viper Strikes Back
Jason signed. With trembling hands and tear-streaked cheeks, he scribbled his signature across the legal documents, stripping himself of every shred of control over Ethan and Sophie’s trust funds, surrendering all residual rights to Anna's architectural copyrights, and sealing his own legal irrelevance.
As Anna and Julian stepped out of the courthouse holding wing into the private legal library on the sixth floor, Marco met them with an urgent look.
"The injunction is filed. The trust is completely secure," Marco reported. "However, we have an unexpected development. The district attorney just notified us that Nicole Laurent was apprehended two hours ago at a luxury penthouse in Greenwich, Connecticut."
Anna’s eyes widened. "She was in the country the entire time?"
"She never left," Julian deduced instantly, his eyes narrowing. "The flight manifest from Panama was a diversion. She wanted Jason arrested so he couldn't testify against her while she liquidated his personal real estate portfolio before the banks could freeze it."
"And that's not all," Marco added gravely. "Nicole’s defense attorney has already reached out to the media. She is claiming that she was merely a junior associate seduced and manipulated by Jason Vance, and that the true mastermind behind the offshore accounts... was you, Anna."
A cold laugh escaped Anna’s lips. "She is trying to implicate me? I was in Italy for an entire year!"
"She produced bank transfers," Marco explained. "Accounts opened in your maiden name—Francesca Moretti—in Zurich and Milan, showing wire transfers totaling over six million dollars dating back to the months before your divorce. She claims you orchestrated Jason’s financial downfall to escape the marriage with his wealth."
Julian slammed his hand on the mahogany table, the sudden violence of the gesture startling even Marco. "She dares fabricate financial fraud in my jurisdiction? She used forged documents in Swiss banking institutions?"
"She knows the public loves a scandalous betrayal," Anna said, feeling the adrenaline surging through her veins. "The media will feast on this. 'The scorned wife who framed her billionaire husband.' If the press picks this up before we disprove it, it could derail our entire restoration project with the Italian Ministry of Culture. Julian, our contracts require immaculate fiduciary standing."
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"Then we don't wait for her trial," Julian said, his eyes blazing with an icy, lethal intensity. "We confront her right now. Before she poisons the public with another word."
***
