Chapter 3 - The Unraveling
The day after the funeral, I sat in my father’s mahogany-paneled home office. Across from us sat Marcus Thorne, the most vicious divorce attorney on the East Coast, and an army of forensic accountants.
“We have frozen the joint accounts,” Marcus explained, sliding a thick dossier across the desk. “But your husband wasn't just committing adultery, Sarah. He was committing corporate espionage.”
I looked up, the fog of grief momentarily piercing. “What do you mean?”
My father leaned forward, his eyes glinting with a dangerous light. “Julian is a mid-level executive at my firm. I gave him the job as a wedding present because I wanted you to be happy. But my cyber-security team seized his work laptops the night Lily died. Julian has been funneling proprietary algorithms from Vance Enterprises to a rival media conglomerate.”
“And who was his contact at this rival firm?” I asked, though a sickening suspicion was already pooling in my stomach.
Marcus pulled out a glossy photograph and laid it on the desk. It was a beautiful, sharp-featured woman with dark hair and a predatory smile.
“Vanessa Croft,” Marcus said. “Vice President of Acquisitions at Apex Media. They weren't just having an affair, Sarah. They were orchestrating a buyout of one of our subsidiaries using stolen data. Julian was planning to cash out and leave you.”
The air left my lungs. He wasn't just missing Lily’s final moments for a random fling. He was actively plotting to destroy our family’s empire while my daughter was dying in a hospital bed.
“Sarah,” my father said gently, placing a hand over mine. “You are a surgeon. You know how to excise a tumor. Give me permission to excise this one.”
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I looked at the photograph of Vanessa. I thought of my little girl, asking for her Papa. I thought of the twenty-two unanswered calls.
“Destroy them,” I whispered. “Tear them down to the studs.”
