Chapter 10 - The Dominoes Fall
The precinct holding area was buzzing with activity when Clara walked back through the glass doors, this time not as a suspect, but as a cooperating witness. The morning sun was beginning to break through the tall, grime-streaked windows of the police station, casting long, sharp shadows across the concrete floor.
Detective Miller motioned Clara toward a small, quiet conference room off the main bullpen. She stepped inside and sank gratefully into a wooden chair, her heavy white lace wedding dress feeling like a leaden costume from another lifetime.
"Mr. Chen has agreed to a full deposition," Miller said, sliding a thick stack of typed transcripts across the table. "He’s corroborating your timeline from three years ago. He admits he took the severance payout from Eleanor Vance, but he insists he never planted the fake ledger entries—that was all Marcus."
Clara flipped open the first page of the transcript, her eyes scanning the familiar names and corporate entities. "Marcus didn't have the technical expertise to write a backdoor script that sophisticated," she murmured, shaking her head. "It had to be someone else inside the holding company's IT department."
"It was," a calm, familiar voice spoke from the doorway.
Clara looked up to see David Chen standing there, flanked by a single officer who unclipped the plastic zip-ties from his wrists. David looked exhausted, his designer coat wrinkled and stained, but his eyes were clear and steady.
"David," Clara breathed, standing up from her chair.
"I'm sorry, Clara," David said quietly, taking a seat across from her without being invited. "I should have warned you when Eleanor approached me three years ago. But she threatened my family, and I was a coward. I took the money and ran."
"And now?" Clara asked, her voice tight with restrained emotion. "Why come back now?"
"Because when I saw the news about your wedding streaming online yesterday, I realized Eleanor wasn't just destroying your startup—she was building a permanent cage for you," David replied, leaning forward earnestly. "She thought she could use you as the fall guy for the entire fifty-million-dollar siphon. But she didn't count on Julian actually falling in love with you."
Clara stared at him, the bitter irony of those words washing over her like cold water. "Love didn't save either of us, David. Julian is in an ICU bed, and his mother is still running the holding company."
"Not anymore," a sharp voice interrupted from the doorway.
Detective Miller stepped back into the room, holding a breaking news tablet displaying a live broadcast from the Vance Global headquarters downtown.
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On the screen, a stern-looking federal prosecutor stood in front of the corporate building, announcing the immediate freeze of all Vance family assets and the issuance of an arrest warrant for Eleanor Vance on charges of securities fraud, witness intimidation, and corporate conspiracy.
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