Chapter 6 - The Boardroom Trap
-6-
The private boardroom on the top floor of the Rossi estate bore no resemblance to a corporate conference room. Instead of glass walls and ergonomic chairs, it was a wood-paneled sanctum dominated by a massive mahogany table carved from a single piece of oak, flanked by high-backed leather armchairs and lit by a roaring stone fireplace. It was the room where generations of Rossis had decided the fates of companies, marriages, and enemies.
I sat in one of the leather armchairs near the head of the table, a cup of untouched tea cooling beside my notepad, while Nico stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out at the rain that had begun to drum against the glass.
The heavy oak doors swung open.
Marcus, the head of security, stepped inside, flanked by two guards. Between them were Liam and Amber.
They looked nothing like the polished, untouchable socialites who had strutted through the Grandon Hotel ballroom two nights ago. Liam’s hair was unwashed and disheveled, his navy suit wrinkled as if he’d slept in it on a cheap motel mattress. Amber clung to his arm, her makeup smeared around her red, swollen eyes, her designer coat stained at the hem from the rain.
“Let go of us! You thugs!” Liam yelled, trying to jerk his arm away from Marcus’s iron grip. “This is kidnapping! We’ll call the police! We’ll—!”
“Sit down, Liam,” Nico’s voice cut through the room like a gunshot, echoing off the wood-paneled walls.
Liam froze. He turned his head slowly toward the window, where Nico stood silhouetted against the gray daylight. For a split second, a flicker of genuine terror crossed Liam’s face before he forced a mask of belligerent defiance over his features.
“Dad! What is the meaning of this?” Liam demanded, pulling Amber down into the leather chairs opposite us. “You’re dragging us here like criminals just because your little gold-digging girlfriend couldn't handle a simple warning note?”
Amber glared across the table at me, her voice dripping with venom. “You think you’re so smart, Luna, hiding behind a rich old man’s coattails! You’re nothing! You were nothing before Liam picked you up off the street, and you’ll be nothing when he’s done with you!”
I didn't flinch. I didn't raise my voice. I simply looked across the table at my sister—the person I had shared a childhood with, the person who had smiled in my face while sleeping with the man I loved—and felt a profound, hollow numbness.
“Is that all you have, Amber?” I asked quietly. “Threatening my mother’s medical records? Digging through trash for old hospital bills? Is that the height of your brilliance?”
“Shut up!” Amber screeched, lunging forward across the table, only to be yanked back instantly by Marcus’s heavy hand on her shoulder.
Nico walked away from the window, his footsteps deliberate and unhurried. He stopped behind my chair, resting one hand casually on the leather back, looking down at his son and my sister as if they were specimens under a microscope.
“You sent a letter threatening legal extortion and privacy violations,” Nico said smoothly, opening a manila folder resting on the table. “Under New York State penal law, section 135.60, coercion in the first degree is a class D felony. It carries a prison sentence of up to seven years.”
Liam’s face drained of what little color it had left. “You... you can’t arrest us for a note! That’s insane! Dad, you’re bluffing!”
“Am I?” Nico raised an eyebrow. He slid a stack of printed digital transcripts across the mahogany table toward Liam. “This is an IP routing log. It traces the exact location of the burner phone your sister used to log into your startup’s secure cloud storage and download Luna’s private financial files. And this,” Nico added, sliding a second document forward, “is a signed confession from your lead software engineer, admitting that you ordered him to hack into the hospital database last night.”
Amber’s jaw dropped. She turned her head frantically toward Liam. “You hacked a hospital database? Are you insane? You told me you just had some leverage!”
“Shut up, Amber!” Liam panicked, sweat beading on his forehead as he scrambled through the papers. “Dad, please! I was just... we were desperate! Luna ruined everything! She humiliated us in front of the entire city! We just wanted her to back off!”
“Luna didn't ruin anything, Liam,” Nico said, his voice dropping into a chilling, lethal register. “You did that all by yourself when you decided that loyalty was optional and cruelty was a hobby. But here is the reality of your situation.”
Nico leaned forward, placing both palms flat on the table.
“You have exactly ten minutes to sign these documents,” Nico continued, tapping the edge of the folder. “They include a full relinquishment of any remaining shares in your startup, a permanent restraining order keeping you both at least five miles away from Luna and her mother, and a confession of corporate espionage that I can either hand to the District Attorney right now or keep in my desk drawer as insurance.”
May you like
Liam stared at the papers as if they were covered in venom. “And if I refuse?”
Nico smiled—a cold, humorless smile that didn't reach his eyes. “Then by tonight, you won’t just be broke. You’ll be wearing an orange jumpsuit while Amber explains to a federal judge why she thought identity theft was a fun weekend project.”
