Chapter 6 - The Trap Snaps Shut
At three o'clock that afternoon, Ryan Carter sat in the cramped, fluorescent-lit conference room of a cheap motel on the outskirts of Savannah.
Beside him, Serena sat curled in a cheap plastic chair, her mascara smeared, wearing an oversized sweatshirt she had bought at a gas station convenience store. Her phone was blowing up with notifications: she had been terminated from her executive position at Carter Holdings via email, her company car had been repossessed from the hotel parking lot, and her personal bank accounts had been frozen by an emergency court order.
"What are we going to do, Ryan?" Serena cried, her voice ragged from hours of sobbing. "They took everything! My name is on the news! My parents called me from Charleston crying! We have nothing!"
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!" Ryan snapped, pacing the stained carpet. "We have the Cayman account! Four million dollars! That's more money than you would have made in your entire pathetic life! As soon as the wire clearing house opens on Monday, I'll transfer the balance to an offshore trust in Belize. We just need to stay under the radar until tomorrow."
His phone buzzed on the laminate table.
Ryan lunged for it. The screen displayed the name: *Marcus Vance, Esq.*
Ryan smirked, a flicker of his old arrogance returning. He held up the phone to Serena. "See? What did I tell you? They're terrified of a public trial. Haley is a Carter—the family hates scandal more than they love money. She’s ready to negotiate."
Ryan cleared his throat, put the call on speakerphone, and answered with forced gravitas. "Vance. I assume your client has come to her senses."
"Mr. Carter," Marcus Vance's calm, measured baritone echoed through the cheap room. "Mrs. Carter is willing to avoid criminal proceedings regarding the Bull Street mortgage and the quitclaim deed on one condition."
"I'm listening," Ryan said, leaning over the table.
"She wants a quiet, private dissolution of the marriage and a full release of all claims against Carter Holdings. In exchange, she will agree not to pursue civil recovery of the four point two million dollars currently held by Seraphic Horizons LLC, and she will decline to cooperate with the Chatham County District Attorney’s office."
Serena gasped, clutching Ryan's arm with renewed hope. "Ryan! Take it! Take it and let's go!"
Ryan’s chest swelled with pride. He truly believed he had won. "Tell Haley I want five hundred thousand in cash added to that for moving expenses, and I want her to sign an NDA barring her from ever mentioning Serena’s name to the press."
There was a brief pause on the line.
"Mrs. Carter has agreed to discuss your counter-proposal in person," Marcus Vance replied smoothly. "At four-thirty p.m., in the private conference suite at the Vance, Sterling & Croft offices downtown. Come alone, or bring Miss Hayes if she is a co-signatory on the corporate release. If you do not appear, the agreement is void."
"We'll be there," Ryan declared triumphantly. "And Vance? Tell my wife to have the checkbook open."
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Ryan hung up the phone and let out a victorious roar, pulling Serena to her feet and kissing her roughly on the mouth. "You see that? I told you! The old money always folds when you hold their reputation hostage! We're rich, baby! We're free!"
***
