Chapter 12 - The Manipulator’s Last Hand
The letter started exactly how I expected it to.
It was dripping with fake remorse and manufactured victimhood.
Dear Anna, he wrote.
I know I am the last person you want to hear from.
I know I broke the law by sending this through an unmonitored channel, but I had to reach you.
Prison has changed me, Anna.
I am not the arrogant man you used to know.
I actually laughed out loud in the quiet solitude of my office.
Even after five years in a concrete cage, David still thought he could charm his way out of a corner.
I continued reading, my eyes scanning the frantic ink.
I am writing because I have something that belongs to you and Lily.
When the FBI seized my assets, they didn't find everything.
I was smarter than they thought.
I have a cold-storage cryptocurrency wallet hidden in a safety deposit box under a false name.
It is worth over two million dollars today.
I narrowed my eyes, feeling a familiar disgust rise in the back of my throat.
He was trying to bribe me.
I want you to have it, Anna, the letter continued.
I want Lily to have the life she deserves.
All I ask in return is that you speak to your father.
My lawyer says if the Chief Justice submits a letter supporting a sentence reduction, I could be moved to a minimum-security camp.
I just want to see the sun without barbed wire, Anna.
Please, take the money and set me free.
I dropped the yellow papers onto my desk as if they were covered in poison.
He hadn't changed at all.
He was still the exact same calculating, manipulative coward who threw a pregnant woman into a counter to save his own skin.
He thought everyone had a price.
He thought I was still the poor, orphaned girl who would be dazzled by a couple of million dollars.
He had absolutely no idea who I had become.
I didn't need his stolen, filthy money.
My practice was thriving, and I was the sole heir to the Sterling family fortune.
More importantly, I possessed something he could never buy.
I had absolute, unbreakable integrity.
I picked up my desk phone and dialed the direct line to the federal prosecutor who handled his case.
"Mark, this is Anna Sterling," I said when he answered.
"I have a piece of evidence you are going to want to see."
"David Montgomery just confessed to hiding two million dollars in federal assets."
"I believe that constitutes a violation of his plea agreement."
Mark chuckled darkly on the other end of the line.
"Send it over immediately, Anna," Mark replied.
"I think Mr. Montgomery is about to earn himself a transfer to a maximum-security solitary confinement wing."
May you like
I hung up the phone, a cold, satisfied smile touching my lips.
Checkmate, David.
