Chapter 8 - The Desperate Phone Call To A Corrupt Lawyer
Miles away in a cramped Upper East Side apartment, Elena paced frantically across the Persian rug in her bare feet.
Her designer dresses were packed into cheap plastic garbage bags stacked haphazardly near the front entryway.
She grabbed a burner cell phone from the kitchen counter, dialing a ten-digit number she hadn't used in five years.
The line clicked after three rings, answering with a raspy, suspicious voice belonging to her former fixer, Arthur Sterling.
"Elena? Do you have any idea what time it is? My services are no longer affordable for you," Arthur muttered sleepily.
"Arthur, listen to me! Clara Vance is back, and she's seized everything I own!" Elena shrieked into the receiver.
"Clara Vance?" Arthur repeated, suddenly wide awake. "The actual founder and majority owner? Are you out of your mind?"
"She humiliated me in front of the entire elite social registry, Arthur! You have to help me ruin her!" Elena cried hysterically.
"Ruin her? Elena, she owns half the federal judges in this state and half the skyscrapers in Manhattan," Arthur scoffed.
"There must be something in the archives! A loophole, a forged document, anything from the old merger days!" Elena begged.
"The only thing in the archives is a one-way ticket to a federal penitentiary for wire fraud, and I'm not going down with you," Arthur snapped.
"I'll pay you double whatever she's paying you!" Elena shouted desperately before Arthur slammed the phone down in her ear.
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She stared at the dead screen in absolute disbelief, realizing every single ally she had purchased over the years had vanished.
***
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