Chapter 13 - The Ambush on the Avenue
The next morning dawned cold, gray, and razor-sharp. The emergency federal hearing had been pushed to noon, giving us three critical hours to gather evidence. Gordon had dispatched our forensic accountants to the county recorder's office, while I took Lily to retrieve the original notarized deed from our private vault on Michigan Avenue.
We had just exited the revolving brass doors of the private bank onto the rain-slick sidewalk when a sleek black Maybach screeched to a halt against the curb, splashing muddy water across the granite steps.
The tinted passenger window rolled down with a smooth, electric hum.
Sitting in the plush leather interior, swathed in an emerald-green cashmere coat that mirrored the sash we had cut yesterday, was Chloe. Beside her behind the wheel sat Julian. He looked thinner, his face gaunt beneath an expensive designer tan, his eyes burning with an unhinged, desperate malice.
"Good morning, Eleanor," Julian sneered through the open window, adjusting his silk tie—the same tie he had worn at the airport when he smirked at my tears. "You look tired. Building harbors must be exhausting for a woman of your... limited legal imagination."
Lily took a sharp breath, but I placed a steady hand on her shoulder, refusing to step back.
"You're in violation of the three-hundred-foot civil protection order, Julian," I said, my voice cutting through the morning traffic like a razor. "Every camera on this bank facade is recording your license plate."
Chloe leaned forward, resting her diamond-encrusted hand on Julian’s arm, a vicious, mocking smile curving her lips. "Let them record, darling. By three this afternoon, the judge is signing the order of receivership. The harbor, the bluffs, the timber mills—everything Gordon Caldwell gave you will belong to Apex. And you’ll be right back where you belong: empty-handed, watching Julian and me celebrate."
"You forgot one thing, Chloe," I said calmly, stepping half an inch closer to the car door. "In Illinois, fraud in the inducement voids a lien automatically. And your father didn't shred his duplicate ledgers before he fled to Zurich."
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The smug smirk vanished from Chloe’s face in a fraction of a second. Julian’s grip on the steering wheel tightened until his knuckles turned bone-white. Before Julian could reply, the roar of a heavy diesel engine shook the avenue, and Gordon’s midnight-blue truck pulled up directly behind their Maybach, cutting off their reverse lane.
***
