Chapter 8 - The Price of Treason
The scene in the executive conference room descended into a chaotic circus of mutual destruction.
Vanessa was hyperventilating, burying her face in her hands as Detective Miller read her her Miranda rights. Patricia was weeping hysterically, clutching her Chanel jacket around herself like a straightjacket, pleading with Robert Thorne to call her high-society connections—connections Thorne was actively ignoring as he backed out of the room to consult his bank’s criminal defense attorneys.
Sam sank into his chair, pressing his palms against his temples, sobbing openly.
"Clara... please," Sam wept, crawling out of his chair and dropping to his knees on the carpet beside me, heedless of the federal agents and detectives watching him. "Please, God, Clara... don't do this to me. I was weak. I was an idiot! I was blinded by my mother and by the past! You’re my wife! I love you! If you press these charges, I lose my company! I lose my license! I'll go to federal prison!"
I stood up, stepping back so that his clutching hands fell onto the empty carpet.
"You didn't care if I lost everything, Sam," I said, looking down at him. "You didn't care if I was ruined, bankrupt, and discarded in a folding chair by the kitchen doors while you raised a champagne toast to your first love."
"I was stupid! It was a mistake!" he cried, tears streaming down his face, snot running over his lip. "We can fix this! We can sell the house! I’ll pay back every cent to your trust! We can start over!"
"We aren't starting over, Sam," I said, pulling an envelope from my purse and dropping it onto his back. "Those are the divorce papers. Marcus filed them at the county clerk’s office at 9:00 this morning. Along with an emergency injunction freezing all joint accounts, all corporate accounts, and placing a temporary receivership over Sterling Global Solutions."
Sam looked at the white envelope as if it were a venomous spider. "Receivership? You... you can't do that..."
"I can," Marcus intervened smoothly. "Because forty percent of the operating equity in Sterling Global was pledged as collateral against the Vance Family Trust eight years ago. Samuel, under the default clauses triggered by your criminal misappropriation of funds, Clara is now the majority shareholder of your company. Effective thirty minutes ago, your board of directors voted unanimously to remove you as Chief Executive Officer."
Sam’s jaw dropped. The last shred of color left his face. "My... my company? You took my company?"
"No, Sam," I whispered, leaning down so only he could hear me. "You gave it away. For a plate of chocolate cake and an ex-wife who didn't even remember your middle name."
Agent Harris stepped up, placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder. "Mr. Samuel Sterling. You need to come with us for questioning regarding the fraudulent filings on the Burlington mortgage."
Patricia screamed as handcuffs clicked around Vanessa’s wrists.
"Don't touch me! Do you know who I am?!" Patricia wailed as Detective Miller escorted her out the double doors. "Clara, you ungrateful wretch! I made you! I introduced you to society! You would be nothing without us!"
May you like
I didn't answer. I didn't even look back as they were led down the corridor, their frantic, shrill voices echoing off the marble floors until the elevator doors closed, cutting them off from my world forever.
***
