I pulled back just enough to look directly into his widening, horrified eyes.
*”You didn’t just give them houses, Victor. You gave them a twenty-million-dollar federal tax fraud indictment. You gave them a mountain of seized assets and insurmountable debt. You gave them nothing but prison.”*
His eyes bulged to an impossible, grotesque size. The realization hit him with the catastrophic force of a derailed freight train. The heart monitor, which had been maintaining a steady, rhythmic beep, suddenly shrieked into a frantic, terrifying rhythm. *Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.*
Across the room, the atmosphere violently shattered. Melissa dropped her designer bag. It hit the linoleum floor with a heavy thud, the gold hardware clattering. All the blood drained from her face, leaving her looking like a wax mannequin as she backed away from the bed, her hands trembling over her mouth.
“What… what is she talking about, Victor?” Melissa stammered, her voice shrill with rising panic. “Victor!”
