“You exceeded your authority the moment you started threatening civilians.”
His face tightened instantly.
So even HE was scared of her.
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“What does any of this have to do with my wife?”
Finally, the woman looked at him.
And somehow that was worse.
Because her face held no emotion whatsoever.
“Your wife won seventy-eight million dollars through a ticket purchased at a small corner store three weeks ago.”
Daniel’s grip on my hand tightened.
The woman continued:
“The financial movements afterward triggered monitoring systems tied to several private interests.”
I frowned.
“Private interests?”
“A large amount of unprotected money attracts attention.”
She said it so casually.
Like predators discussing weather.
Then she tilted her head slightly.
“The problem is not the lottery itself.”
Cold crawled up my spine.
“Then what is the problem?”
The woman looked directly into my eyes.
“The timing.”
Silence.
Daniel spoke first.
“What timing?”
The woman finally removed one black glove slowly.
“Two months ago, several laundering pipelines connected to offshore movement operations collapsed.”
The gray-haired man looked away.
Richard looked sick.
The woman continued:
“Millions disappeared. Accounts froze. Certain individuals became desperate.”
Then her gaze returned to me.
“And suddenly… a woman with no prior high-net-worth profile wins almost one hundred million dollars.”
I stared at her.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying people began asking questions.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“She won legally.”
“Yes,” the woman said calmly.
“We verified that.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then what do you want?”
The woman’s expression darkened slightly.
“We want to know whether someone used the lottery to clean money through you.”
My brain stopped.
“What?!”
Richard started shouting immediately.
“I TOLD YOU SHE DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING!”
The woman silenced him with one glance.
Daniel looked furious now.
“This is insane.”
“Perhaps,” she replied.
“But people have died over less.”
