""The best way to defeat your enemy is not to attack them head-on, but to become the only person in the world they cannot live without."
[ Paris - 08:00 PM ]
The air in Victor Sinclair's grand office had become stifling. The scent of old leather and expensive tobacco was now masked by the sharp, acidic stench of panic. His eldest son, Julian, was collapsed in an armchair, hands trembling, unable to string two coherent words together.
Victor: "What did you do, Julian? Tell me one more time before I lose my mind!"
Julian: "It was... it was an accident, Dad. The rain, the speed... I didn't see that woman coming. And when I saw the blood, I... I panicked. I just drove away."
Selin Sinclair, standing by the window, closed her eyes for a moment. She was the only one keeping a cool head, but her silence betrayed her fury. She was the one who had been cleaning up messes for years.
Selin: "You didn't just cause an accident, Julian. You committed a hit-and-run. If the police trace that car back to us, the Sinclair name won't be worth a cent by tomorrow morning."
Victor: "She's right! You've destroyed twenty years of work in a single night!"
At that exact moment, the secretary, Mrs. Aris, stepped forward with a discreet pace. I had placed her there three years ago. She knew exactly when to inject the poison.
Mrs. Aris: "Mr. Sinclair... If I may. There is a man. A lawyer who never appears in the newspapers, but who makes problems vanish where the law fails. They call him Elias. As long as the price is right, he stops at nothing."
Selin turned abruptly, her gaze dark and sharp.
Selin: "Elias? You mean that legal mercenary? I've heard of him. He's arrogant, unstable, and his methods border on criminal. It's out of the question."
Victor: "And what do you propose, Selin? Letting your brother rot in a cell while our shares drop by fifty percent?"
Selin: "I'm saying we don't let a wolf into the sheepfold just because we're afraid of the guard dogs. This man will cost us more than he'll ever bring in."
Victor: "I don't care about the price! Call him, Selin. That's an order."
Silence fell over the room once more. Selin stared at her father, then at her cowardly brother, before reaching for the landline. Her fingers trembled slightly with rage. She didn't want me. She hated me already.
She dialed the number Mrs. Aris had handed her on a post-it note.
Across the city, in my office shrouded in darkness, my phone began to vibrate. I smiled as the Sinclair caller ID flashed on the screen. Twenty years... I had imagined this moment for twenty years. Twenty years of setting the trap for Victor Sinclair.
I picked up.
Elias: "I was hoping for your call, Miss Sinclair. You took longer than expected."
Selin: (In a voice of pure ice) "Make no mistake. If it were up to me, you wouldn't even know my name."
Elias: "But it isn't up to you, is it? Fate often plays tricks on us... Until tomorrow, Miss Sinclair. Have a coffee ready. I have a feeling we're going to be spending a lot of time together."
I hung up before she could retort. The Trojan Horse was finally in motion.