Chapter 3 - The Morning After
The media fallout was entirely local, but in our affluent suburb, gossip was a currency more valuable than gold. By Monday morning, my phone was ringing off the hook. I ignored all the calls, save for one.
Victor Vance walked into my kitchen at 9:00 AM, carrying two cups of black coffee and a thick manila folder.
"You look well-rested for a woman whose life blew up on Saturday," he noted, sliding a coffee across the granite island.
"I grieved my marriage five months ago," I said, taking a sip. "Now, it's just administrative work. What do you have?"
Victor opened the folder. "Mark is staying at a cheap motel out on Route 9. Evan's wife, Valerie, froze all their joint accounts and filed an emergency injunction. Evan is completely locked out of his own funds. But that's not the best part."
I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"I started digging into Mark's startup, like you asked. It turns out, Mark didn't just sleep with Evan's mistress. He also embezzled about $400,000 from their company's venture capital fund to pay off Chloe's mounting credit card debts. If Evan finds out, he won't just hit Mark. He'll press federal charges."
I smiled. It was the first genuine smile I had worn in months. "Do we have the paper trail?"
"Every single wire transfer," Victor said, tapping a stack of bank statements. "Sent straight to a shadow account in Chloe's name. She knew where the money was coming from, too."
May you like
My little sister had always been greedy. But I hadn't realized she was stupid enough to make herself an accessory to federal wire fraud.
"Make a copy of everything," I instructed. "And send it to Valerie. I have a feeling Evan's soon-to-be ex-wife would love to use this in her divorce proceedings."
