Chapter 9 - The Confession on Screen-9-
I leaned closer to the monitor, the blue light casting stark shadows across my face. The audio feed was muted, but the visual language of the room was crystal clear. Julian was shouting, his face twisted in rage, pointing a finger directly at Alessandro’s chest. Alessandro didn't flinch. He simply sat there, resting his hands calmly on his armrests, watching his cousin unravel.
With a trembling hand, I found the audio toggle on the bottom corner of the screen and clicked it.
"...you think you've won, you arrogant bastard!" Julian’s voice blared through the laptop speakers, cracking with fury. "The board is voting to strip your assets by morning. You're broke, you're paralyzed, and your little stunt tonight won't save your empire!"
Alessandro’s voice, when it finally answered, was quiet, steady, and utterly devastating.
"Julian," Alessandro said, his tone conversational, as if they were discussing the weather over brunch. "Did you ever wonder why I never signed the final acquisition papers for the Chicago Harbor project two years ago?"
Julian froze. The color drained entirely from his face, leaving him looking sickly under the harsh overhead lights. "What... what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the insurance policy I took out the day after my car went off the bridge," Alessandro continued smoothly. He pressed a button on a small remote in his hand. A secondary wall-mounted screen in the office flickered on, displaying a high-definition financial ledger. "You used a shell corporation registered in the Cayman Islands to funnel thirty million dollars to the engineers who modified my brake lines. A shell corporation, I might add, that lists your wife's maiden name as the primary beneficiary."
Julian staggered backward, colliding with a bookshelf that spilled a cascade of leather-bound volumes onto the floor. "That's... that's a forgery. You can't prove—"
"I don't need to prove it to a judge, Julian," Alessandro interrupted softly. "I've already sent the encrypted archive to every federal prosecutor in the tri-state area. The feds are currently boarding your private yacht at the Navy Pier as we speak."
On the monitor, Julian's phone began to vibrate violently in his breast pocket. He pulled it out, stared at the screen for one agonizing second, and dropped it onto the floor as if it were burning his skin.
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"You destroyed us," Julian whispered, the fight completely draining out of him. "You destroyed our family."
"You destroyed yourselves the moment you decided that greed was stronger than blood," Alessandro said, his voice hardening like steel. "Get out of my house. And if I ever see your face in Chicago again, the feds will be the least of your worries."
