Chapter 7 - The Billionaire’s Secret
I stared at the man standing before us. Vance?
“Alexander Vance?” I echoed, the name ringing a bell from local business headlines. “As in Hayes-Vance Global? The corporate restructuring firm?”
“The very same,” Alexander said, walking closer with a slow, measured stride. He glanced down at the handbag in Derek’s hands. “Ah, I see you found Chloe’s parting gift. She tends to panic when federal investigators get too close to her financial trail.”
“What does Chloe have to do with a corporate restructuring firm?” Derek asked, his jaw tight. “She’s a glorified con artist, not a Wall Street executive.”
“Con artists are extremely useful when you want to bury corporate espionage and embezzlement under a mountain of domestic scandal,” Alexander explained smoothly. He pulled a slim leather cardholder from his pocket and handed us each a business card embossed with gold lettering. “For the past three years, Sterling Pharmaceuticals has been systematically looting pension funds to finance illegal offshore trials. When my father’s firm began auditing their accounts last winter, they needed a distraction—something explosive enough to tie up federal regulators, local courts, and prominent families so no one would look at the corporate filings.”
I felt the blood drain from my face as the horrifying puzzle pieces clicked into place. “And Chloe was their distraction.”
“Bingo,” Alexander smiled grimly. “Chloe was recruited by Richard Sterling’s legal fixers. They funded her lifestyle, bought her designer clothes, and paid her hush money to infiltrate your family, poison your marriage to Derek, and keep you perpetually stressed and isolated so you wouldn't notice that the research grants your medical lab was relying on were being quietly siphoned off by Sterling-backed shell companies.”
Derek looked at me, his eyes wide with shock. “Clara... your grant funding at the clinic. The one that got mysteriously cut six months after our divorce?”
“It was redirected into Chloe’s offshore account,” I whispered, staring down at the bank statements in my hands. Every humiliation, every cruel word my family had thrown at me, every sleepless night I spent wondering if I was failing as a doctor and a wife—it was all manufactured by a corporate conspiracy executed by a woman I once called my best friend.
“Your family wasn't just manipulated by a jealous girl,” Alexander said quietly, his tone laced with a strange, dark empathy. “They were weaponized by professionals. And now that the federal grand jury has indicted Sterling Pharmaceuticals, Chloe is trying to flee the country.”
“Where is she?” I demanded, the grief and exhaustion I had felt all day instantly converting into pure, concentrated rage. “Where is Chloe?”
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“Currently being loaded into an unmarked federal transport vehicle in the underground loading dock,” Alexander said, checking his luxury wristwatch. “She thought she could trade the offshore account passwords for witness protection. But the Justice Department doesn't negotiate with grifters.”
He looked us both in the eye. “If you want to watch the house of cards finally collapse, I suggest we head down to the garage. You might want a front-row seat.”
