Chapter 5 - The Golden Boy's Wrath.
Richard Sterling returned to his Greenwich estate at three in the morning, exhausted and completely intoxicated by his own perceived power.
He had just closed a multi-million-dollar hedge fund deal, and he was eager to wake Clara up to remind her just how insignificant she truly was.
He aggressively punched his security code into the front door, barely noticing that the alarm system panel was already silently disarmed.
Richard loosened his expensive silk tie and marched directly up the grand staircase, fully expecting to find his wife cowering in fear where he had left her.
He unlocked the master bedroom door and threw it open, turning on the blazing overhead chandelier lights with a dramatic, heavy sigh.
Clara, get up right now and fix me a drink, he demanded loudly, stepping into the luxurious room with arrogant confidence.
But the room was completely empty, completely silent, and chillingly devoid of his wife's presence.
Richard frowned, walking toward the walk-in closet before something on the center of the bed violently caught his attention.
A massive, serrated military combat knife was driven deeply into his custom silk mattress, pinning a small, blank piece of white paper to the fabric.
Richard's blood ran completely cold as he stared at the terrifying weapon, his arrogant confidence evaporating in a single, heart-stopping second.
He frantically pulled out his phone and checked the security camera feeds, completely horrified to find that every single camera on the property had been flawlessly looped.
He sprinted downstairs to the guardhouse, finding his two highly paid private security contractors tied up and unconscious on the floor.
She called her lunatic father, Richard muttered to himself, panic finally setting in as he realized the magnitude of his fatal mistake.
He knew Thomas Vance was a dangerous man, but he had arrogantly assumed his Wall Street wealth and high-society connections made him untouchable.
Richard immediately locked himself in his private study, pouring a massive glass of scotch with hands that shook violently against the crystal glass.
He could not call the police, because an official investigation would inevitably expose the abuse, and his pristine public image would be instantly destroyed.
Instead, he opened a heavily encrypted browser on his laptop and logged into a dark web marketplace that catered to the ultra-wealthy elite.
He transferred two million dollars in untraceable cryptocurrency into escrow, posting a massive bounty for a highly specialized retrieval team.
I want my wife brought back to me alive, and I want her father permanently eliminated, Richard typed frantically into the secure messaging portal.
May you like
He hit send, leaning back in his leather chair and taking a long, desperate gulp of the burning alcohol.
Richard thought his money could solve any problem in the world, completely unaware that he had just declared war on a man who practically invented modern warfare.
