Chapter 4
The city was painted in the dark, heavy colors of a coming storm.
Sarah sat in her car across from a massive, glittering glass skyscraper downtown.
Vance Holdings.
She had spent the last forty-eight hours building a case on her own.
She hadn't slept.
Her heart condition, usually kept at bay by the expensive surgery Marcus had sacrificed everything for, was throbbing with a dull, terrifying rhythm.
But she couldn't stop.
Marcus was sitting in a county jail cell.
His reputation was being dragged through the mud by the same social media mobs that had condemned him years ago.
Suddenly, her phone rang.
It was a video call from an unknown number.
She answered it.
The screen flickered, revealing Daniel Briggs.
He was sitting in a dark room, smoking a cigarette.
"Hello, Sarah."
"Daniel. You planted those parts. You're working for Vance."
Daniel laughed, a hollow, broken sound.
"Vance wants the land. I just wanted to see him fall. He took everything from me. My badge. My wife. My life."
"You took that from yourself, Daniel!" Sarah yelled. "You set the fire! You let jealousy turn you into a monster!"
"Maybe," Daniel whispered. "But no one is going to believe a disgraced cop. And no one is going to believe a desperate wife. Your husband is going to prison, Sarah. And Vance gets the land. It's already done."
The screen went black.
Tears streamed down Sarah's face.
She felt entirely helpless.
But then, her phone buzzed again.
A text message from a local number.
"Meet me at the diner. I have something you need."
Cautious but desperate, Sarah drove to the small diner on the edge of town.
When she walked in, she saw a woman sitting in the back booth.
It took Sarah a moment to recognize her.
It was the woman who had thrown the glass bottle at Marcus outside the courthouse three years ago.
The woman whose husband had been killed, who had been blinded by grief and lies.
"You?" Sarah asked, sliding into the booth.
The woman nodded nervously.
"My name is Claire. I work as a cleaner at Vance Holdings. I clean the executive offices."
Sarah's breath caught. "What do you know?"
Claire slid a small USB drive across the table.
"After what your husband did for me... after he offered me his hand instead of anger... I owed him."
"What is this?"
"It's security audio. From Vance's office. He and Daniel Briggs planning the whole thing. How they bought the stolen parts. How they paid someone to smash the cameras. How they paid off the tip line."
Sarah stared at the drive.
It was everything.
The smoking gun.
"Why are you risking your job for this?" Sarah asked, her voice breaking.
Claire smiled softly with tears in her eyes.
"Because Marcus showed me grace when I deserved a prison sentence. It's time someone caught him for a change."
Sarah didn't wait for the morning.
She drove straight to the home of the District Attorney.
She pounded on the door until the lights came on.
When the DA opened the door, furious, Sarah held up the USB drive.
"I have proof," she said, her voice trembling but fierce. "Proof of conspiracy, framing, and corruption. And if you don't release my husband tonight, I am taking this to every news station in the country."
The DA looked at her, seeing the absolute fire in her eyes.
The fire of a mother.
The fire of a wife.
May you like
The fire of a woman whose life had been saved by the man she loved.
By midnight, the orders were signed.
