“You… you can hear?” Logan stammered, his voice cracking into a high-pitched squeak.
“I can hear perfectly,” I smiled. It was a predator’s smile. “I heard you book your flights to Cabo with Chloe. I heard you complain about my cooking. And I heard you tell the nurse to let me die.”
I let go of his wrist. I reached into my purse, pulled out a small, high-quality Bluetooth speaker, and set it firmly in the center of the mahogany table, right next to the two-million-dollar check.
I picked up my phone, unlocked it, and pressed play on the master file I had compiled.
The high-definition audio filled the conference room, crystal clear.
“Once the two-million-dollar settlement clears, we’ll immediately move it into the offshore LLC,” Pamela’s crisp, greedy voice echoed off the walls.
“And her personal savings?” Logan’s voice followed. “I want that transferred before she gets out of here.”
“Drain it slowly,” Pamela’s voice instructed. “If she tries to leave later, remind her she’s damaged goods. A deaf, scarred woman? Who else would want her?”
Mr. Davis, the mediator, gasped audibly, pushing his chair violently away from the table as if the documents themselves had caught fire. The insurance representative stared at Logan with absolute, horrified disgust.
Logan scrambled out of his chair, stumbling backward, hyperventilating. The walls were rapidly closing in on him. “That’s—that’s a lie! That’s a deepfake! She used AI to make those voices! She’s crazy, she has brain damage from the crash!”
“Save the desperate lies for the police, Mr. Miller,” a new, booming voice announced.
The heavy oak doors of the conference room swung open.
My lawyer, Mr. Sterling, walked into the room like an avenging angel in a tailored suit. He wasn’t alone. He was flanked by two stern-faced detectives wearing badges from the city’s Financial Crimes Division.
One of the detectives stepped forward, holding a thick stack of manila folders.
“Logan Vance and Pamela Vance,” the detective said, his voice devoid of any sympathy. “I have signed arrest warrants for both of you on charges of wire fraud, grand embezzlement, forgery of a medical proxy, and criminal conspiracy.”
