Chapter 8
The inevitable knock arrived at three in the morning, loud and demanding, shattering the silence of Victoria’s cheap hotel suite. She stumbled to the door, her expensive designer clothes wrinkled and stained, her Hollywood glam waves reduced to a tangled, oily mess. When she pulled the door open, she was met with the blinding flashlights of federal marshals.
"Victoria Sterling, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, corporate espionage, and child endangerment," the lead marshal announced. He didn't wait for her to process the words; he spun her around roughly and locked cold steel handcuffs tightly around her wrists. "You can't do this, my father is a United States Senator!" she screamed hysterically, fighting against the officers' grip.
"Your father was arrested two hours ago, ma'am," the marshal replied flatly, escorting her down the drab hallway. Paparazzi had somehow discovered her location, and they swarmed the hotel lobby, their camera flashes illuminating her absolute humiliation. She was shoved into the back of a federal transport van, crying desperately as the doors slammed shut, sealing her fate.
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Meanwhile, halfway across the country, Julian woke up to the smell of fresh pine and crisp mountain air. He walked onto the wooden deck of his massive log cabin, holding a steaming mug of black coffee. The sun was just rising over the snow-covered peaks, painting the vast Montana sky in breathtaking shades of gold and pink.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a brief, coded text message from Vance confirming that both Victoria and her father were officially in federal custody without bail. Julian deleted the message, turned off his phone entirely, and tossed it onto a nearby patio chair. He didn't care about their trials, their sentences, or their inevitable ruin; he only cared about the peace he had finally secured.
