“Emily, don’t say a word,” Nathan pleaded, rushing up the stairs toward her. “I will fix this. I have the best lawyers in the country. We will fight this together.”
Emily looked at him with a mixture of profound love and devastating sorrow. “You can’t fight them, Nathan. You don’t know who is actually behind this.”
As the FBI agents began to march up the stairs, Emily reached into her pocket and slid a small, folded piece of paper into Nathan’s hand, pressing his fingers closed over it.
“Trust no one,” she whispered right into his ear. “Look at the name of the prosecutor who signed the warrant.”
Before Nathan could unfold the paper, the agents grabbed Emily, putting her hands behind her back and snapping heavy metal handcuffs onto her wrists. Nathan tried to intervene, but Julian and his mother held him back, screaming that he would ruin his life and his company if he assaulted federal officers.
Nathan watched in absolute horror as his wife was dragged down the stairs, out the front door, and thrown into the back of a black SUV. The caravan of government vehicles tore down the driveway, leaving nothing but dust and the echo of sirens behind.
Furious, trembling with an untamed rage, Nathan violently ripped his arm away from Julian’s grip. He looked down at his clenched fist and slowly unfolded the piece of paper Emily had given him.
Written in her hurried, shaky handwriting was a message:
The FBI didn’t find me on their own. Someone in your inner circle leaked my location to the cartel’s new boss. The man who ordered my family’s execution seven years ago is the very same man funding your corporation’s new merger. Check the signature on the warrant. He is closer than you think.
Nathan’s eyes darted down to the official FBI arrest warrant left on the table by the agents. His gaze locked onto the bottom of the page, where the authorizing signature of the federal prosecutor was stamped.
As he read the name, the room began to spin. A cold sweat broke out across his neck. He slowly turned his head to look at the people standing in his living room—his mother, who had always hated Emily, and Julian, his best friend and corporate lawyer who had orchestrated the multi-billion dollar merger just last week.
Nathan realized with a sickening jolt that the monster who had slaughtered Emily’s family wasn’t in West Virginia.
He was standing right inside the room.
