Chapter 39 - The Mother’s Wiretap
At 6:30 AM, while Henrik was running signal diagnostics on our encrypted laptops, a burner phone sitting on the fireplace mantel began to vibrate violently.
The screen displayed a spoofed area code from upstate New York.
Henrik instantly connected the audio feed through his recording rig and nodded at me. "It's clean, but route it through the voice-mask emulator just in case. Answer it."
I tapped the green icon and held the phone to my ear. "Hello?"
A ragged sob burst through the speaker. "Sylvia? Oh God, Sylvia, please tell me you can hear me!"
It was my mother.
Her voice sounded completely broken, stripped of the condescending authority and self-righteous fury she had wielded for months. Gone was the woman who had smugly told me over text that my hard-earned Amazon account belonged to Briana. In her place was a terrified, weeping stranger.
"Mom," I said, keeping my tone perfectly flat. "Where are you?"
"They took everything, Sylvia!" she cried, her words tumbling out in a panicked rush. "Arthur’s men... they came to the house in Cold Spring last night with marshals and private security. They cleared out the furniture, they seized the cars, they locked me out in the driveway in my bathrobe! Arthur looked me in the eye and told me I was nothing but an expendable signatory! He said if you don't turn over the Geneva key by noon today, he’s filing criminal fraud charges against *me* for the Delaware transfers!"
Briana stepped closer, her jaw tightening as she listened to our mother's breakdown over the speaker.
"You signed those documents willingly, Mom," I said coldly. "You signed them while you were trying to bleed me dry to spoil Briana and protect Arthur’s ego."
"I was stupid! I was blind, baby, please!" she wailed. "Arthur told me he was protecting the family legacy! He told me you were rebelling, that you were going to sell out the family diner to venture capitalists! I didn't know he was embezzling from the estate! He’s in Geneva, Sylvia! He flew on a private jet three hours ago. He told his lawyers that if he gets into Vault 714 first, he’ll wipe us both out legally and leave us in federal prison!"
Briana snatched the phone from my hand. "Listen to me, Mom," she said, her voice shaking with controlled rage.
A stunned silence fell on the other end. "Briana? Is that... is that you?"
"Yes, it's me," Briana said, tears spilling down her cheeks. "The daughter you turned into a spoiled, dependent monster so you could feel needed. Sylvia saved my life while you were throwing me into Arthur’s meat grinder. We are in Switzerland. And we are going to finish what Grandfather started. Stay in a motel, don't talk to Arthur’s lawyers, and for once in your life, let Sylvia fix what you broke."
Briana ended the call and threw the burner phone onto the sofa. She looked at me, wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, and took a deep breath.
May you like
"Let's go take the bank," Briana said.
***
