Chapter 4 - The Art of War
Two weeks later, the storm truly broke.
I was back in my new home—a highly secure, gated townhouse in Medina that I had quietly purchased under an LLC. I sat in my home office, bouncing little Leo on my knee, while my attorney, David Sterling, paced across the hardwood floor.
“Julian filed the paternity suit this morning,” David said, adjusting his glasses. “He’s demanding a court-ordered DNA test, full sole custody, and an immediate freeze on the Vance Trust assets.”
“On what grounds?” I asked, handing Leo a silver rattle.
“He’s claiming maternal unfitness and malicious fraud. He’s arguing that you intentionally concealed the pregnancy to manipulate the financial outcome of the divorce, which he claims proves you are psychologically unstable.”
I let out a harsh laugh. “Psychologically unstable? That’s his go-to move.”
“It worked for him last time, Clara,” David warned softly. “He has the Vance lawyers behind him. They are sharks. If they can convince a judge that you acted with malicious intent, they might be able to pierce the trust.”
“Let them try,” I said, opening a thick manila folder on my desk. “Because while Julian was busy planning his extravagant wedding and honeymooning in the Maldives with a wife who despises him, I was doing some digging.”
I slid the folder across the desk.
David opened it, his eyes scanning the documents. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Clara… where did you get this?”
“Maya wasn't just his mistress. She was my assistant. She had access to my private network, but she also used the Vance internal servers to send encrypted files to Julian.” I leaned forward. “She thought she deleted them. But I hired a forensic IT specialist the day Julian asked for a divorce. I’ve known for a year.”
David flipped through bank statements, wire transfers, and offshore account numbers.
May you like
“Julian has been embezzling from his own company,” David whispered, awestruck. “Siphoning funds from the European division into private Cayman accounts to hide them from the marital estate during your divorce.”
“Exactly,” I smiled. “And Maya facilitated the transfers. She’s an accessory to corporate fraud. Julian wants to talk about malicious intent in family court? Let’s talk about federal felonies in criminal court.”
