Chapter 3 - The Shark in a Suit
I didn't just go to a hotel. I went to the best hotel in the city, and the next morning, I walked into the offices of Sterling & Vance, the most ruthless corporate and real estate law firm in the state.
I sat across from Richard Vance, a silver-haired shark of an attorney who charged a thousand dollars an hour. I slid a thick binder across his desk.
“My daughter-in-law has been ‘organizing’ my finances for two years,” I told him. “I want a full forensic audit of every penny attached to my name.”
It took Richard’s team exactly forty-eight hours to find the rot.
When I returned to his office on Wednesday, Richard looked at me with a mixture of grim respect and anger. “She hasn't just been organizing, Eleanor. She’s been embezzling. Over the last twenty-four months, she has systematically drained seventy-five thousand dollars from your retirement accounts into a hidden offshore LLC in her maiden name. She was draining you dry so that when she finally declared you incompetent, there would be no money left for you to fight back.”
I closed my eyes. The sheer, calculated evil of it took my breath away.
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“What do we do?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
Richard smiled, leaning back in his leather chair. It was a terrifying, brilliant smile. “We freeze their assets. We file a civil suit for fraud. And then, Eleanor, we introduce them to the full, crushing weight of the American justice system.”
