Chapter 8 - The Collapsing Alliance
Chloe slammed both hands against the glass partition, her painted fingernails leaving greasy smudges on the reinforced pane.
“You can’t do this to me!” Chloe screamed, her voice cracking with hysterical panic.
“I have a right to my share of the marital assets! I signed a prenuptial agreement that guarantees my financial security in the event of a separation!”
Margaret slowly raised her gaze from the table, looking at Chloe with a cold, devastating calm.
“A prenuptial agreement, Chloe, is only valid when the assets in question are legally acquired,” Margaret said, her voice smooth and chillingly polite.
“Every single stock option, every piece of real estate, and every diamond necklace you accumulated over the last five years was purchased using embezzled pension funds. Under federal law, stolen property cannot be claimed in a divorce settlement.”
Julian watched the exchange from his side of the glass, a grim, humorless smile touching the corners of his mouth.
“She’s right, Chloe,” Julian muttered into his receiver, his voice dripping with venom.
“You wanted the high life without asking where the money came from. Well, congratulations. You get the prison sentence to match.”
Chloe spun around to face Julian, her eyes blazing with absolute fury.
“You lying bastard!” she shrieked, lunging toward him before the guard yanked her back by her collar.
“You told me those offshore accounts were legitimate investments! You said your mother set them up years ago!”
“I lied, Chloe! I lied about everything just like you lied about loving me!” Julian shouted back, standing up and rattling his chains against the table until the guard forced him back down into his seat.
Margaret watched the two of them tear into each other with a detached, clinical curiosity, like a scientist observing specimens in a poisoned laboratory. She placed her plastic receiver back onto its cradle with a sharp, echoing click.
Standing up smoothly, Margaret smoothed down the front of her charcoal wool coat, ignoring Chloe’s frantic screaming and Julian’s bitter cursing.
She turned and walked toward the heavy security door without looking back once.
As the steel door swung open to let her out into the bright afternoon sunlight, a man in a sharp grey suit stepped out from the shadows of the hallway, holding a thick manila envelope bearing the stamp of the federal prosecutor’s office.
Margaret paused, taking the envelope from the man’s hands with steady fingers.
“Is it done?” Margaret asked quietly.
“Every last account has been seized and audited,” the man replied, his voice low and urgent.
“But there is one complication. We found a hidden ledger linked to an offshore shell corporation registered not under Julian’s name, but under an unknown third party.”
Margaret’s eyebrows knitted together in a sudden, sharp frown.
“Whose name?” she demanded, opening the envelope to reveal a single birth certificate tucked inside.
May you like
The man leaned in close, whispering a name that made the blood instantly drain from Margaret’s face.
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