Chapter 5 - The Trap is Set
The trap was constructed with the cold, unyielding precision of a Swiss watch.
Over the next forty-eight hours, Vance’s team moved behind the scenes. We didn't panic. We didn't rush to court to file defensive motions. Instead, we played along.
We sent an encrypted digital response to the email address provided in the ransom package. The message, drafted under my supervision, stated that the wire transfer of $1.5 million was approved, but due to internal compliance protocols for international transfers exceeding one million dollars, the funds would be released in three separate tranches of five hundred thousand over seventy-two hours into the Cayman Islands account.
Sterling and Price took the bait like starving wolves.
They were so blinded by greed that they didn't stop to ask why a multi-billionaire was complying so easily with a criminal extortion demand. They assumed my wealth made me careless, that I simply wanted the problem to vanish before it hit the gossip columns.
On the third day—precisely twenty-four hours before the official deadline—Sophia sat in the sunlit conservatory of my estate, holding a cup of chamomile tea while Emma played quietly with a wooden puzzle set in the corner, her gray housekeeping uniform safely folded in her bedroom upstairs.
“Mr. Moretti,” Sophia said, her voice shaking slightly as she looked up at me. “Jonathan Sterling called my personal phone this morning. He... he told me I should convince you to pay the money quickly. He said if I didn't cooperate, Daniel’s lawyers would paint me as an unfit mother in court, and I would never see Emma again.”
I walked over to the glass table and set down a fresh cup of tea for her.
“Sophia, look at me,” I said gently.
She raised her eyes.
“Did you ever sign any formal custody agreements with Daniel when Emma was born?”
“No,” she whispered. “He wasn't even on the birth certificate. I raised her alone from day one.”
“Then under New York State law, he has zero custodial rights until a paternity suit and a formal legitimation proceeding are successfully argued and won in family court,” I explained calmly. “Which he cannot do without submitting himself to a forensic background check, DNA testing, and financial scrutiny—none of which a man living off fraudulent extortion schemes can survive for ten seconds.”
May you like
Sophia let out a shaky breath, a tear slipping down her cheek. “I was so scared, Mr. Moretti. When he walked into the hospital... it felt like the floor was dropping out from under me all over again.”
“The floor isn't dropping out,” I said, my voice hardening. “The floor is about to cave in underneath them.”
