Chapter 15 - The Raid
Armed with Marcus’s flash drive and Chloe’s damning audio recordings, Victoria and I went to the authorities.
The FBI took one look at the evidence and immediately opened a massive criminal investigation into Vance Real Estate.
I was sitting in my office on a sunny Tuesday morning when the news finally broke across every television network.
Federal agents in dark windbreakers were swarming Julian’s corporate headquarters, carrying out boxes of documents and hard drives.
I watched the live broadcast as Julian, looking disheveled and panicked, was escorted out of his building in handcuffs.
My phone buzzed; it was a text from Victoria containing simply a champagne glass emoji.
The mighty billionaire, the man who thought he could discard me like broken furniture, was completely humiliated on national television.
His investors pulled out instantly, his stocks plummeted to zero, and his entire empire evaporated in less than three hours.
I didn't feel joy, exactly, but I felt a profound sense of justice that settled deep in my bones.
Later that afternoon, the judge presiding over our divorce case threw out Julian’s ridiculous demands for my assets.
Because of his impending criminal charges, all of his remaining assets were frozen by the federal government.
He was essentially homeless, entirely broke, and facing up to twenty years in federal prison for massive corporate fraud.
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I walked to the window of my office, looking down at the city that I now owned a piece of.
I had survived the fire he started, and I had used the ashes to build a fortress.
