They Thought I Was A Fool, I Was Their Only Chance Chapter 06

They Thought I Was A Fool, I Was Their Only Chance Chapter 06

The laziness vanished from Grant Calloway’s face.

He straightened and dropped the posture of a man enjoying a show.

Then he looked me over again.

There was caution in his eyes now.

“Miss Sinclair, it seems everyone in our circle got you wrong.”

“You’re not stupid. You’re frighteningly smart.”

He tried to hide his panic behind a teasing tone.

I pulled out a chair and sat beside the head of the table.

I did it unhurriedly, as if I were having afternoon tea at home.

“You’re too kind, Mr. Calloway.”

I laced my fingers on the tabletop.

“Instead of worrying about how smart I am, you should worry about your own liquidity.”

Grant’s pupils tightened.

My father and Ethan turned toward me at the same time.

The room went quiet enough to hear everyone breathe.

“That ten–billion–dollar acquisition fund of yours is a shell, isn’t it?”

I held his gaze and pressed harder with every word.

“You used highly leveraged offshore financing to bluff your way through a short attack on

Sinclair’s stock.”

“Once my father signed tonight, you could take this rigged agreement to an offshore bank, pledge it

as collateral again, and use the cash to patch your own hole.”

“You call that business? It’s just taking a house with no money down.”

Grant’s face changed.

He denied it on instinct.

“That’s absurd!”

“My assets and transactions are fully documented. Mr. Sinclair, what kind of breakdown has your daughter suffered?”

tried to turn the conversation back toward my supposed illness.

It did not work.

No one believed him anymore.

Ethan took a breath and pulled out his phone.

“Check every offshore entity Grant Calloway owns. I want the cash flows and collatetal pledges

now.”

He had come from Wall Street. His reaction was immediate.

Sweat appeared along Grant’s hairline.

He knew that once the Sinclairs investigated, his secrets would not stay hidden for long.

He whipped toward Blake, his eyes murderous.

Blake flinched, scrambled to his feet, and tried to run for the door.

“Security!”

Claire shouted.

Two guards rushed in and forced Blake face–first onto the floor.

“Get off me! I’m Sinclair’s chief legal officer! You can’t arrest me!”

He thrashed like a fish on a dock.

I rose slowly and walked over to him.

I looked down at him.

“Counsel Mercer, did bullying an eight–year–old who had only just learned to use a fork make you feel powerful?”

I crouched and tapped his face with the agreement.

“Your offshore account received twenty million dollars yesterday.”

“The payment moved through a Cayman shell company and ended in a hidden Swiss account under

your name.”

“Am I wrong?”

Blake’s pupils blew wide. He stared at me as if I had crawled out of a nightmare.

“How… how do you know that?”

His voice shook as he finally broke.

He had built the transfer route so carefully that even Grant did not know the details.

How had I found it?

I hadn’t found it at all.

In my previous life, I had handled too many multinational financial–crime cases. I could drawa laundering route like that with my eyes closed.

I had only used the most confident voice I could manage to bluff him.

He had confessed for me.

“Breach of fiduciary duty and commercial fraud. How many years are you planning to spend in prison?”

I stood and dropped the agreement onto him.

Then I turned to my father.

He was completely stunned.

He looked from Blake on the floor to me.

Shock, joy, guilt, and disbelief fought across his face.

“Sloane… my daughter…”

His eyes filled with tears. He reached toward me, then stopped, afraid to touch me.

Afraid the impossible dream would break.

I stepped away from his hand, my tone calm.

“Dad, I’m not the problem right now.”

I pointed at Grant across the table.

“The problem is Mr. Calloway trying to walk out without leaving us a thing.”