Chapter 10 - CHRISTIAN'S COUNTERATTACK
By midnight, Christian was desperate.
He was pacing the tiny kitchen of his aunt’s house in Glendale, chain-smoking cheap cigarettes he had stolen from his uncle's jacket. Gwen was passed out on the couch under the influence of heavy over-the-counter sleeping pills, her snoring loud and ragged. Chloe had finally stopped crying and was staring blankly at a muted television screen.
Christian’s laptop—an old secondary MacBook he had kept in his trunk—was connected to the neighbor’s unsecured Wi-Fi.
He had spent the last four hours staring at the court filings.
He was ruined. His accounts were frozen. The Apex Horizon cover was blown. The Camelback villa was gone—Elena had called him from a burner phone, screaming hysterically before hanging up on him.
"She thinks she won," Christian muttered through clenched teeth, his eyes bloodshot, veins bulging in his neck. "She thinks she can destroy my family and walk away clean. No. No way in hell."
Christian opened his email client and drafted an email to a contact he had kept secret for three years: Arthur Pendleton, the Chairman of the Board of Meridian Global.
Arthur Pendleton was a seventy-two-year-old corporate titan who hated scandal, prioritized shareholder value above all else, and held absolute power over executive appointments.
Christian began typing with feverish intensity:
*Subject: URGENT: Evidence of Executive Embezzlement and Conflict of Interest Regarding Sienna Mercer*
*Dear Mr. Pendleton,*
*I am writing to you not as Sienna Mercer’s husband, but as a whistleblower concerned for the integrity of Meridian Global.*
*For the past three years, Sienna has been using an off-the-books logistics company—Apex Horizon Logistics—to siphon operational funds under the guise of Tier-Four supply procurement. She coerced a procurement manager, Bradley Cooper, into executing these transactions to hide her personal income from family estate disclosures.*
*When I discovered this fraud yesterday and confronted her, she reacted violently, assaulted my elderly mother, had my family illegally evicted, and used company security personnel to seize assets to cover her tracks.*
*Attached are invoices showing Apex Horizon Logistics billing Meridian Global for over one million dollars, approved under her division.*
*I urge the Board to suspend Sienna Mercer immediately and initiate an independent forensic audit before she liquidates corporate assets.*
*Respectfully,*
*Christian Mercer*
Christian hit *Send*.
A cruel, twisted smirk spread across his face.
Christian knew how corporate America worked. The moment a board chairman received an allegation of executive embezzlement supported by real invoice numbers, the protocol was absolute: immediate administrative suspension, revocation of building access, and an internal freeze.
Sienna would be locked out of her office by 8:00 AM. Her corporate cards would be seized. Her authority would evaporate.
"Let's see you hire high-priced lawyers when Meridian freezes your executive compensation, you arrogant bitch," Christian hissed into the empty kitchen.
He closed the laptop, poured himself a glass of tap water, and looked out the window into the dark desert night.
He truly believed he had dealt the killing blow.
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He had no idea that Arthur Pendleton had been sitting in Victoria Sterling’s office five hours earlier.
***