Chapter 9 - The Mistress
Maya and I sat in my quiet, secure townhouse. She was sipping herbal tea, reviewing the divorce documents my lawyer had drafted. The bruising on her face was fading, replaced by a fierce, determined glow.
"He’s going to fight the divorce, Dad," Maya said softly. "He won't let go easily. He’s too obsessed with control."
"He has no leverage left, Maya," I assured her.
My laptop chimed with an encrypted email from one of my former auditing colleagues at the federal bureau. I opened the file and let out a low whistle.
"What is it?" Maya asked.
"I asked my contacts to dig deeper into the shell accounts Julian was using to hide the embezzled money," I explained, turning the screen toward her. "He wasn't just funding his parents' lifestyle."
Maya looked at the screen. It was a dossier on a twenty-four-year-old Instagram model named Vanessa. Attached were bank records showing Julian had been paying the rent on her luxury downtown penthouse and leasing a Range Rover in her name for the past two years.
Maya stared at the photos. For a moment, I feared the betrayal would break her all over again.
Instead, Maya let out a sharp, cold laugh.
"He told me we couldn't afford to go on a honeymoon because the business was struggling," Maya said, her eyes turning to absolute steel. "He made me wear thrift store clothes while he bought her diamonds with stolen money."
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"We can use this," I said gently.
"No, Dad," Maya said, standing up, her posture straighter than I had seen it in years. "I’m going to use this. Julian wants to play games? I’m going to destroy him myself."
