Chapter 5 - Frozen SecretsThe reaction to the corporate audit was immediate. By Wednesday afternoon, Daniel's consulting offices were swarming with federal investigators. His partners, desperate to save their own skins, immediately turned over all internal communications, pinning the entire embezzlement scheme on Daniel.
Vanessa’s boutique was raided next. The designer clothes she had bragged about purchasing were seized as assets bought with stolen capital.
I stood in the kitchen of my house, watching the rain beat against the window, when my phone rang. It was an restricted number. I answered, putting it on speaker.
"Julia, please," Daniel's voice came through, sounding hollow and desperate. He was calling from the county jail's payphone. "You have to stop this. The feds are frozen everything. My mom... she’s being evicted from her apartment because my checks bounced. They have nowhere to go."
"They should have thought about that before they laughed at my broken arm over roast beef, Daniel," I said, my voice completely devoid of emotion.
"I was angry, Julia! I lost my temper!" he cried, his voice cracking. "I love you. We can fix this. Please, just tell your lawyer to drop the civil suit. I'll sign the divorce papers, I'll give you the house—"
"The house is already mine, Daniel," I interrupted. "You have nothing to give me. You are a thief and an abuser, and you are going to spend the next several years in a cell thinking about the lesson you tried to teach me."
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"Julia, don't do this!" he screamed, but I pressed the red button, cutting off his voice.
I took a deep breath, looking around my beautiful, quiet kitchen. The poison was finally being drained from my life, and for the first time in a long time, the air felt clean.
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