2025-05-17 23:38:20
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The Easy Part
Annabel received the call from Victor early the next morning just as she woke up. Victor's voice on the other end was steady even though it was very early in the morning, which meant that he had been working the whole night."The injunction held," he said, skipping the pleasantries. "The court accepted our pre-filing position, and there will be no movement from their side to counter it, so we have that advantage now."Annabel nodded. "That's very good. What about the lawsuit?""Yes, about that... the final copy is ready. I have organized all the documentation, exhibits, and testimonial references. I will get them court stamped right after this call, and then when the judge approves the service, we can go live."Annabel sighed. "How long will this take?""Seventy two hours max," Victor said. There was a long pause. Then Annabel said, "Okay. Let’s do it."Victor let another bout of silence settle between them for a breath before he continued. "This means you’ll be public again. Once th
Cut Off
Victor Hosè arrived at Freya's apartment only a few minutes after noon. Annabel was already waiting near the entrance for him by the time he came. She greeted him with a kiss on his cheek and let him in. Freya had offered to stay in the kitchen to give them space, but Annabel had asked her to stay nearby. After all, everything they were about to discuss had been a joint effort.Victor was a tall man in his mid-forties. He was dressed in a gray suit, and had a quiet kind of authority that didn’t ask for attention. He was the type of man who commanded respect without making a sound, and Annabel trusted him because of it.He paused at the doorway, looked around the apartment, and then at her.“You’re thinner,” he noted without judgment.“long story.” she replied as she let him in.He nodded once, dropped his briefcase on the small table, and unbuttoned his jacket. “Let’s get started.”They sat together in the living room — Annabel and Victor sat on the couch, while Freya sat on the armre
Written Statement
Freya left Janice’s house just after seven the next morning. A taxi waited for her at the curb, while Janice stood and watched her go at the front door in her robe, and a cup of coffee in her hand.“You will keep in touch, won’t you?” she asked with a smile that did not reach her eyes.Freya nodded, forcing a matching smile. “Of course.”Janice leaned in and kissed Freya on the cheek before she went to the taxi. “You’ve grown so much, Freya. I’m glad you came back.”Freya said nothing. She smiled again and nodded. She got into the taxi, gave the driver the address to her apartment, and stared out through the window as the engine came to life and drove them away.When she arrived at her place, she was surprised to find the door already slightly open. She knew what it meant, because she had texted Annabel the previous night to let her know she would be coming back early.She pushed the door open and entered inside.The first thing she noticed was the smell of coffee that hit her immedia
Leaving Jan
The house was quiet again after Marren and Donald had left. Janice had excused herself to make a phone call upstairs. Freya had offered to clean up but Janice told her not to worry.“No need, sweetheart. Just relax. You’ve been so helpful already.” She had said. Freya smiled and nodded. Now, she stood in Janice's study, about to do something very risky.Janice wasn’t careless, but she also didn’t expect sabotage from people she thought were on her side. Freya sat down on the table where Janice's home computer was, and moved the mouse. The screen came on, and luckily for her, there was no password prompt. Why would there be? Janice lived alone after all.Freya calmed herself down and started navigating through the computer. Not that she expected to see anything, especially with the way Aunt Jan was good at hiding everything, but she just had an inkling that if she looked, she would find something, so here she was. She checked the main documents folder which was filled with the expecte
Recorded Conversation
Freya had only just come down from a nap when she heard the knock at the door. She stood quietly at the top of the stairs and listened as Janice went toward the entrance.When the door opened, two voices greeted her in low tones. Freya didn’t need to look out to guess who they were. They were her uncles Marren and Donald. Freya’s stomach tightened, but she forced herself to breathe evenly. She waited two minutes before walking down slowly, and casually.When Janice saw her enter the living room, she offered a smile and waved her niece in with a flick of her fingers.“Freya, darling. You remember your uncles, don’t you?”As if Freya was supposed to forget her uncles. But Freya nodded politely, greeted them, and went to sit down on the single armchair in the room. She tapped her phone screen lazily, as though she were bored. Marren and Donald looked at Freya, then at Janice skeptically as if they had questions they did not want to ask in Freya's presence. But Janice turned to the men.
A link
The rain started sometime after midnight. Annabel was curled in the armchair, looking at her open laptop on the table. Her hair was tied back messily, and she wore one of Freya’s oversized hoodies.The document she had been building piece by piece for the past two hours was on the screen. It was a digital case file which she labeled plainly as “Internal Tracking — CONFIDENTIAL.”Inside the document were screenshots of the blog posts, financial transaction logs from Janice’s shell account, and now the photo of the crumpled receipt Freya had found, snapped and sent to her earlier that day.Her evidence wasn’t complete yet but it was becoming something.She had just copied a line from one of the earlier blog entries — “considering the silence from the Annabel Maxim…” — when her burner phone lit up with a notification sound.It was Freya with a new text. Freya: "Hey. Small update. Aunt Jan was texting someone this evening while I was clearing the dishes. She left her phone face up on the
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