Chapter 5 - The Net Tightens
By Monday morning, three days after the disastrous Thanksgiving dinner, my life had devolved into a non-stop storm of legal filings, forensic accounting sessions, and police interviews.
Emily was an absolute rock. She took time off from her job as a high school administrator to manage Noah’s schedule, keeping our home a safe, quiet haven far away from the wreckage of my parents' life. Every night when I returned home—smelling of old paper, cold coffee, and hospital disinfectant—she would have a warm meal ready, listen to my updates, and hold my hand while I processed the sheer weight of what was happening.
"How is your mother holding up?" Emily asked on Monday evening as we sat at our kitchen table, surrounded by piles of financial ledgers I had brought from my dad's office.
"She’s starting to see reality," I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes. "The doctor discharged Dad today, but he’s on strict bed rest. Mom is finally realizing that for twenty years, she enabled Rebecca's manipulation just to keep the peace. She spent two hours crying in Noah’s room today, apologizing to him for not standing up for him on Thanksgiving."
"Did Noah forgive her?"
I smiled slightly. "Noah handed her a box of tissues and asked if she wanted to play checkers with him. He has a bigger heart than anyone in this family deserves."
"He gets that from you," Emily said gently, kissing my cheek.
My laptop chimed with an incoming video call. The screen showed the name Special Agent Sarah Chen - FBI Cyber Division.
I quickly accepted the call. "Agent Chen, thank you for taking my call so late."
"Mr. Collins," Agent Chen began, her sharp features framed by a crisp dark blazer. "We’ve made significant progress over the weekend thanks to the server logs you provided from your father’s home network."
"Did you trace the transfers?"
"We did," Chen said, pulling up a shared screen on the call that displayed a complex web of transaction nodes. "Your sister and her husband used a VPN to access your father’s Commerce National account, but they made a critical error. Marcus Vance used a verified digital wallet registered under a secondary Wyoming LLC to receive the preliminary transfer of two hundred thousand dollars. That exchange, Coinbase Prime, is based in the United States and complies fully with federal warrants."
My heart leaped. "You froze the wallet?"
"We froze $210,000 in liquid stablecoin forty-five minutes ago," Chen reported with a rare, crisp smile. "They managed to move roughly $170,000 through an offshore mixer based in Seychelles, but because we caught the domestic end so quickly, we were able to flag the receiving bank accounts in Panama."
"Where are they right now?" I asked.
"They didn't fly to Europe," Chen replied. "They flew to Miami, Florida. They’re currently staying at a luxury high-rise hotel in Brickell, using a fake lease agreement they prepared under Marcus’s old alias. Local police units and federal marshals are currently positioning themselves outside the building. We plan to execute the arrest warrant at dawn tomorrow."
I took a deep breath, feeling a massive weight lift off my chest. "Will my parents be able to recover the frozen funds?"
"The $210,000 in the domestic exchange will be returned through federal asset forfeiture within sixty days," Chen explained. "The remaining money in Panama will take longer, but with the criminal charges of wire fraud and grand larceny fully secured, we will seize their domestic assets—including Marcus’s sports cars and Rebecca’s personal investments—to satisfy restitution."
"Thank you, Agent Chen. Truly."
"Thank your sister for her arrogance, Mr. Collins," Chen added before hanging up. "Leaving that written note was the dumbest thing a target has done in my department all year."
I closed my laptop and looked across the table at Emily.
"They found them," I said softly. "The feds are arresting them in Miami tomorrow morning."
Emily squeezed my hands tightly. "It's finally coming to an end."
"No," I said, looking out the window into the quiet neighborhood night. "The legal part is ending. The restoration of our lives is just beginning."
At 6:30 AM the following morning, my phone rang. It was Detective Vance.
"It’s done, Daniel," Vance said, his voice crackling over the line. "Federal marshals took Rebecca and Marcus into custody without incident at 6:00 AM. Mason is currently in the care of Florida Child Protective Services until your parents or another family member can arrange transportation for him."
I felt a sudden, unexpected pang of pity—not for Rebecca, but for Mason. Eleven years old, raised in an environment of greed, entitlement, and lies, now sitting in a state intake facility three states away while his parents sat in handcuffs in a federal holding cell.
"I’ll fly to Miami to pick up Mason," I told Vance.
May you like
"You?" Vance sounded surprised. "After how he treated your son?"
"He’s eleven years old, Detective," I said. "He was taught to be a bully by two criminal parents. If someone doesn't show him what real family responsibility looks like right now, he doesn't stand a chance."
