Chapter 3
While I was preparing the legal assault against Vanguard Horizon,
an unexpected disruption arrived from the past.
A letter was delivered to my Chicago office,
sent from a medium-security correctional facility,
bearing Grant’s handwriting on the envelope.
I had ignored all previous attempts at contact,
letting my lawyers handle any necessary communications,
but this envelope was marked as an urgent legal disclosure.
I opened it cautiously,
half expecting another pathetic plea for forgiveness,
or a demand for money he believed he was still owed.
Instead,
the letter contained a frantic,
rambling confession regarding Richard Vance and the Linden rezoning project.
Grant explained that before his arrest,
he had drunkenly boasted to Richard about my mother’s property,
claiming it sat on a massive,
untapped underground aquifer.
Richard had verified the geological data,
realized the water rights were worth tens of millions,
and began quietly purchasing the surrounding lots.
Grant was writing to me now,
not out of a sudden surge of morality,
but because Richard had cut him out of the finder’s fee they had illegally negotiated.
Even from behind bars,
Grant’s primary motivation was still greed,
spite,
and a desperate need to settle petty scores with his former friends.
However,
his selfish betrayal provided me with the exact piece of evidence I needed.
The rezoning petition had nothing to do with commercial development,
it was a fraudulent cover to seize control of the municipal water supply.
I immediately forwarded the letter to Anika,
instructing her to cross-reference the geological surveys with Vanguard’s recent environmental filings.
They had intentionally omitted the aquifer data from their public reports,
a massive federal violation that could trigger an immediate criminal investigation by the EPA.
I sat back in my chair,
shaking my head at the absolute stupidity of men who believed they were untouchable.
Grant had handed me the weapon to destroy Richard Vance,
simply because he was angry about not getting paid for a crime he helped orchestrate.
I did not write back to Grant,
I did not thank him,
and I certainly did not offer him any legal leniency in return.
I simply took his confession,
added it to my growing arsenal of evidence,
and prepared to execute a flawless corporate ambush.
May you like
The water beneath my mother’s land belonged to the community,
and I was going to ensure that not a single drop of it was ever commodified by men who traded in lies.
