Chapter 12: The Fall of the Sterling Name
In June, the federal hammer finally fell on Ryan Sterling.
Following the Department of Justice’s investigation, Ryan entered a blind guilty plea to four federal counts of wire fraud, tax evasion, and interstate stalking.
He was sentenced to seven years at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, along with an order for $12 million in mandatory restitution and a permanent lifetime criminal protective order prohibiting any contact with Emma or Lily.
Sterling Global Equity dissolved in bankruptcy, its assets liquidated to pay outstanding fines and investor liens.
Eleanor and Arthur Sterling retreated into total social seclusion, their Greenwich mansion placed on the auction block.
Emma read the sentencing report on her laptop on the cottage porch while the evening breeze rustled the apple leaves above.
She felt no vindictive joy, no triumphant malice.
She simply closed the file, shut down the screen, and walked into the kitchen to help Lily and Caleb bake fresh blackberry cobbler.
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The past was closed forever. Its shadows could no longer reach her home.
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