Chapter 4 - THE LIVESTREAM WAS A TRAP
The man was Gregory Vale.
Not a lawyer.
A business broker.
More specifically, a distressed-assets consultant with a history of buying struggling gyms and wellness companies cheaply before reselling them to larger chains.
Marie’s attorney, Simone Park, found him by morning.
She also found an email chain.
Evelyn to Vale:
The livestream will create the incident we discussed. Once Marie loses control publicly, the board and insurer will have no choice but to treat her as unstable.
Vale replied:
Do not put that in writing again.
Marie stared at the screen.
The room became very quiet.
Simone said:
“Your mother wanted a public event.”
“Yes.”
“Your brother was supposed to provoke you.”
“Yes.”
“Your injured knee made escalation likely.”
Marie closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“And the transfer document was ready.”
“Yes.”
The plan was ugly but not sophisticated.
Humiliate Marie on livestream.
Push her into losing control.
Create footage showing an unstable owner attacking her younger brother.
Then use the incident to pressure her minority investors, insurer, and lender.
If the gun appeared?
Even better.
Except they had not known Marie was carrying because of the anonymous threat.
That part transformed their trap into something far more dangerous than they intended.
Simone asked:
“Did Vale send the threat?”
Marie looked at her.
“We don’t know.”
Police were investigating.
The number was prepaid.
The photograph metadata had been stripped.
But the timing matched.
The office break-in occurred after Marie refused, through a general email, to meet with an unnamed buyer interested in Gardner Performance Lab.
The buyer had been represented by Vale.
Zach denied knowing about any threat.
Marie believed him.
Maybe.
He admitted something else, though.
Evelyn told him Marie planned to sell the gym to a national chain and “leave the family with nothing.”
That was false.
Marie had rejected three acquisition offers.
Zach thought the livestream challenge would prove Marie was physically unfit and emotionally volatile.
Then, according to him, Evelyn said:
“If her bad knee gives out on camera, everyone will finally understand she can’t run this place forever.”
Marie stared at her brother.
“You knew you were supposed to hit my injured knee.”
Zach looked down.
“Yes.”
“Did you know about the transfer?”
“No.”
“Did you know about Vale?”
“Only that Mom had someone interested in fixing the ownership.”
Marie laughed.
May you like
“Fixing.”
Another family word for taking.
