Chapter 4 - The Web of Debt
Forty-eight hours after deploying Marcus Vance’s intelligence team, the preliminary dossier on Victoria Lang arrived in Daniel’s private, encrypted email inbox.
The report was fifty pages long, and every single paragraph demolished another layer of the elegant lie Victoria had constructed around herself.
Her real name was Victoria Elizabeth Vance-Lang. She was not the daughter of a deceased wealthy Virginia horse breeder, as she had claimed. She was the daughter of Arthur Lang—a disgraced hedge fund manager who had died in a federal prison six years ago after defrauding investors out of eighty million dollars.
More shockingly, Marcus’s investigators uncovered that Victoria was not acting out of simple personal greed. She was heavily leveraged by a ruthless offshore private equity group called Aegis Global Holdings, based out of the Cayman Islands.
Victoria owed Aegis over twelve million dollars in personal gambling and bad investment debts.
Sixteen months ago, Aegis had brokered a deal with her: seduce Daniel Carter, secure a legally binding prenuptial agreement with a mandatory fifty-percent estate execution clause in the event of his untimely death, and slowly eliminate him using undetectable toxic compounds provided by an underground apothecary in Zurich.
Once Daniel died, Aegis would take control of Carter Meridian Group’s massive healthcare holdings, stripping the company’s assets and liquidating its billions in capital.
Daniel sat in his dark study, staring at the glowing blue monitor, reading the financial flowcharts connecting Victoria to Aegis Global.
“Aegis,” Daniel murmured to himself, an icy fire igniting behind his eyes.
Aegis Global Holdings was run by Julian Vance (no relation to Marcus or Kenneth)—a shadowy, sociopathic billionaire financier who had tried and failed to hostile-takeover Carter Meridian Group three years earlier.
Julian hadn't just wanted Daniel’s company; he had wanted revenge for his public embarrassment in the financial press. He had used Victoria as a biological weapon, sending her into Daniel’s life to dismantle him piece by piece.
Daniel picked up his phone and called Marcus.
“I read the dossier,” Daniel said coldly.
“It’s dark, Daniel,” Marcus replied. “She’s a sociopath, but she’s just a pawn on Julian Vance’s chessboard. If you expose her now, Julian will cut his losses, liquidate her, and send another operative after you in six months.”
“Then we don't just cut the pawn,” Daniel declared, leaning back in his chair. “We trap the King. I want you to leak a fake financial document to Victoria’s private laptop tonight.”
“What kind of document?” Marcus asked, intrigued.
“A modified draft of my new will,” Daniel smiled wickedly. “Make her believe that I am signing over eighty percent of Carter Meridian Group directly to her in an emergency estate codicil this Friday at our rehearsal dinner... provided I am still alive to sign it.”
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Marcus let out a low whistle over the line. “You’re laying out the ultimate cheese for the rat.”
“I’m giving her a deadline,” Daniel corrected. “She will try to finish the job before Friday. And when she makes her move, Julian Vance will be standing right beside her to collect the spoils.”
