Chapter 6 - The Traitor's Price
The rain had cleared by dawn, leaving the city washed in a cold, grey light.
Inside a soundproof executive suite on the top floor of a Midtown skyscraper, Sienna Vale sat across from Dominic Moretti. She was no longer wearing her wedding gown. She wore a simple trench coat, her hair pulled back into a tight, messy bun, her face scrubbed clean of makeup. She looked exhausted, broken, and terrified.
Dominic sat behind a glass desk, typing quietly on a laptop.
"He called me twenty times last night," Sienna said, her hands shaking around a paper cup of cold coffee. "He knows I left the Plaza with my backup laptop. He knows I have the ledgers."
"Let him call," Dominic said without looking up from his screen. "Panic makes men sloppy. Sloppy men make mistakes."
"Dominic, you don't understand," Sienna pleaded, leaning forward. "Grant isn't just rich. He’s connected to people in the state attorney's office. If he realizes I leaked the offshore shell accounts in the Caymans, he'll have me arrested for grand larceny before noon!"
"He won't," Dominic said, closing his laptop with a quiet click. "Because if he touches you, the wire transfer I made to your Swiss account last night will be automatically reported to the Internal Revenue Service as a whistle-blower bounty payoff."
Sienna swallowed hard, clutching her purse tighter. "You promised me immunity."
"I promised you money and protection," Dominic corrected coldly. "Immunity is something you earn from a prosecutor. And you will earn it on Monday when you testify before the grand jury."
"Testify?" Sienna’s voice rose to a panicked squeak. "I can't go on the stand against Grant! He'll destroy me!"
"He already destroyed you," a voice came from the doorway.
Sienna whipped around.
I stood in the doorway, wearing a heavy wool coat over a simple sweater. Eleanor was strapped to my chest in a soft gray carrier, sleeping peacefully against the steady beat of my heart.
Sienna’s eyes dropped to the baby, her jaw slackening. "Claire..."
I walked into the room, my boots making quiet clicks on the polished floor. I stopped three feet from her chair, looking down at the woman who had spent two years seducing my husband, leaking my private medical data, and laughing behind my back at charity galas.
"You look tired, Sienna," I said softly.
Sienna’s face twisted in shame, then flared into anger. "You think you're so smart, don't you? Sitting there with your baby like some kind of saint! You knew he was lying about the medical reports! Why didn't you fight back then?"
"Because then, I was fighting for myself," I said, leaning down slightly so my eyes were level with hers. "And I didn't think I was worth the mud he was throwing. But now, I'm fighting for her."
I pointed down at Eleanor.
"Grant used you to ruin me," I continued, my voice steady and deadly cold. "And the moment he thought he found a better piece of leverage—my child—he threw you into the gutter like a piece of garbage. You were nothing to him, Sienna. Just an assistant who knew how to stretch a spreadsheet."
Sienna lowered her head, tears spilling over her lashes and dripping onto her trench coat. "He promised me everything, Claire. He promised me the foundation, the penthouse, the name..."
"Grant doesn't give anything away," I said. "He only leases things until he finds a newer model. You knew that when you took my place."
Dominic stood up from behind the desk, taking a sleek black pen and placing it on the table in front of Sienna.
"Sign the affidavit, Miss Vale," Dominic said. "Sign it, take your money, and get on the plane to Geneva. Or stay in New York and let Grant make you the fall person for six hundred million dollars in offshore tax fraud."
Sienna stared at the pen for five long seconds. Her trembling hand reached out, picked it up, and pulled the legal document toward her.
May you like
"What is he going to do when he finds out?" she whispered, signing her name on the bottom line with a shaky hand.
"He's going to try to buy his way out," I said, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window at the skyline dominated by the Kingsley Tower. "And he's going to find out that the bank is closed."
