I caught my husband lying to me in real time. He told me he was scrubbing into emergency surgery, that he'd be at the hospital all night saving lives.

By the time the Atlanta sun began to set, the Sterling family vacation had devolved into a complete nightmare.

I sat in the command center Victor had set up in my downtown penthouse—a property I owned under an LLC that Marcus didn't even know existed. We were monitoring the fallout in real-time.

Marcus had spent three hours trying to reach his banking liaisons, all of whom had been instructed by my legal team to freeze communication due to "pending federal investigations." Desperate, Marcus had tried to use Chloe’s credit card to book a cheap hotel near the airport.

"Chloe’s card maxed out at a Marriott," Victor reported, sipping a scotch. "Apparently, Marcus promised to pay off her debts last week, but the transfer never went through. She is livid."

I watched a string of frantic text messages pop up on the cloned version of Marcus's phone on our monitors.

Chloe: You said you were a multi-millionaire! Why is my card declining for a $200 room? Eleanor: Marcus, do something! My feet are swelling and Julian is crying. Julian: Bro, my bookie just called. He says my collateral is gone. What did you do?!

Then, Marcus's phone lit up with an incoming call from his senior law partner, Richard. Victor routed the audio through the room's speakers.

"Marcus, where the hell are you?!" Richard screamed through the phone.

"Richard, thank God," Marcus pleaded, pacing outside the terminal in the rain. "My accounts have been hacked. Everything is locked. I need you to wire me fifty grand from the firm's emergency fund."

"The firm's emergency fund?!" Richard roared. "The FBI is tossing our offices as we speak, Marcus! Someone leaked an encrypted ledger showing you've been embezzling client retainers into offshore accounts for five years! The SEC has frozen our entire operation. You're ruined, Marcus. We're all ruined. Do not come back to this building, or I will kill you myself!"