477 He Chose His Mistress And Left Me In The Burning Lab To Die—Seven Years Later, I Walked Into His Gala With His Twins And The Audit That Destroyed His Empire / Chapter 12 / 100

Chapter 12 - The Interrogation of Sophia Ward

The Metropolitan Detention Center smelled of industrial bleach, stale coffee, and despair. It was an environment as far removed from the private yachts, diamond galas, and VIP penthouses Sophia Ward had occupied for the past seven years as humanly possible.

When the heavy steel door buzzed open, I stepped into the cinderblock interrogation room. Sophia sat at the stainless steel table, handcuffed to an iron ring welded directly into the metal. The designer silk blouse she had worn to the gala was gone, replaced by an ill-fitting orange jumpsuit. Her golden hair, usually styled in flawless waves, was greasy and pulled back into a hasty knot. Her mascara had run, staining the hollows beneath her eyes like bruised shadows.

She looked up when I entered. For a fleeting second, the venomous sneer that had once terrified junior researchers flashed across her face, but it died quickly, replaced by a hollow, frantic desperation.

"You look proud of yourself, Elena," Sophia rasped, her voice rough from hours of crying and shouting at guards. "Walking in here in your four-thousand-dollar suit, playing the triumphant martyr."

I pulled out the metal chair opposite her, the legs scraping harshly against the concrete floor. I sat down, folded my hands on the cold surface, and looked at her with detached curiosity.

"I didn't come to gloat, Sophia," I said smoothly. "I don't need to. The forensic audit of Moretti Tech's third-quarter disbursements has already tied your shell company, Cerberus Holdings, to twenty-two million dollars in kickbacks. The federal prosecutor is looking at wire fraud, conspiracy to commit murder, and treason against critical infrastructure. You are thirty-two years old. You will be an old, forgotten woman when you see the outside of a federal penitentiary."

Sophia’s hands trembled against the steel table, the chains clinking softly. "You think Julian loved me? You think I was the one pulling the strings?" A bitter, manic laugh escaped her cracked lips. "You always were a genius in the lab and a complete idiot when it came to human nature."

"You made your choice seven years ago," I said, leaning in. "When the fire alarm tripped in the sub-basement, you took the master keycard from Julian’s desk. You locked the fireproof safety doors from the outside while I was still calibrating the reactor core. You thought if I burned, Julian’s claim to the patent would be undisputed. And you thought you'd step into my place."

"Julian was the one who turned off the ventilation, Elena!" Sophia suddenly screamed, lunging forward until the chain snapped taut, biting into her wrists. The guard by the door shifted his hand toward his baton, but I raised two fingers, silently instructing him to stand down.

"He told me you had found the discrepancies in his dummy accounts," Sophia whispered, her eyes wide, glistening with terror. "He told me that if you walked out of that lab that night, we were both going to prison. But he lied to me, just like he lied to you. It wasn't just about the patent. He didn't build the Aegis network for Moretti Tech. He was building it for someone else."

"Who?" I demanded.

Sophia leaned forward, her breath hitching. "Julian was drowning in debt to a syndicate out of Geneva long before you finished that blueprint. The fire wasn't just meant to kill you—it was supposed to destroy the original prototype because the investors didn't want the clean energy patent to reach the public market. They wanted a weapon. They wanted a backdoor into the national grid so they could manipulate energy futures on the global exchange."

"The Aegis Group," I murmured.

"Julian was just their errand boy," Sophia sobbed, the arrogance completely drained from her, leaving only a pitiful husk. "He has an encrypted drive, Elena. The master key. He calls it the 'Covenant File.' It contains the identities of every senator, CEO, and foreign minister Aegis bought off to make his rise possible. If you don't find him before they do, they won't arrest him. They will erase him—and anyone who knows what was on that drive. Including your children."

I stood up slowly, brushing an invisible speck of lint from my blazer.

"Where did he go, Sophia?"

Sophia looked up, tears cutting tracks through the grime on her cheeks. "The old testing facility in the Pine Barrens. The one you two bought when you first graduated. He thinks no one remembers it exists."

I turned toward the door. As the guard keyed the lock, Sophia’s voice rose in a frantic wail behind me. "Elena! Tell the prosecutor I cooperated! Please! You have to tell them I gave you the location!"