Chapter 4 - The Execution
On the ninth day after Claire vanished, the Whitmore Urban Group held its quarterly emergency board meeting. Grant stood at the head of the table in the glass-walled conference room in Manhattan, sweating through his custom suit as he tried to explain the sudden, massive gaps in their quarterly funding.
"It's a temporary liquidity issue," Grant lied smoothly to the fourteen board members. "We are restructuring our overseas assets—"
The heavy glass doors of the boardroom swung open.
It wasn't Claire. It was the lead investigator for the Securities and Exchange Commission, flanked by two federal agents.
"Grant Whitmore," the agent said, his voice cutting through the dead silence of the room. "We have a warrant for your arrest on charges of wire fraud, embezzlement, and securities fraud."
Grant stumbled backward, hitting the whiteboard. "On whose authority? You have no proof!"
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One of the board members, a quiet, older man who had been at the anniversary dinner, cleared his throat. He reached into his leather briefcase and pulled out a thick, sealed envelope bearing the handwritten words: IF GRANT MAKES HIS CHOICE.
"A courier delivered this to my home at midnight," the board member said coldly, dropping the envelope onto the table. "It contains copies of a red ledger, along with an encrypted flash drive. It details the theft of over forty million dollars from this firm."
