Chapter 2 - The Midnight Audit
That night, after Ryan locked himself in the guest bedroom accusing me of being "dramatic and ungrateful," I sat in my private locked study wearing the torn gold gown.
I powered on my secure corporate laptop and dialed Arthur Vance—my grandfather's lifelong attorney and the managing partner of Vance, Sterling & Cross.
"Audrey," Arthur answered immediately. "I have the finalized forensic audit."
"Send it to my encrypted terminal, Arthur," I commanded, my voice devoid of emotion.
The files downloaded within seconds. As I scrolled through the bank transfers, loan agreements, and land registrations, the breath caught in my throat.
Ryan had not merely been living off my trust income.
For the past eighteen months, Ryan and Lorraine had systematically forged my signature on four separate mezzanine loan applications, encumbering thirty-five million dollars of trust-backed commercial properties in Boston and New York.
Worse, Ryan had funneled twelve million dollars into an unvetted offshore shell company registered in the Cayman Islands under the name LV Horizon Corp—an entity solely controlled by Lorraine.
Then I reached the final tab of the audit: Personnel & Surveillance Logs.
Buried in the subject line was a name that made my blood run cold: Elena Moreau.
Attached were high-resolution photographs taken by private investigators over the past three months.
They showed Ryan dining at luxury restaurants in Manhattan with Elena Moreau—his former college sweetheart—and visiting a luxury penthouse in Tribeca that had been purchased using two million dollars diverted directly from my private dividends.
Ryan hadn't just betrayed my trust financially.
He had built a parallel life on my stolen legacy.
At 2:17 AM, I placed my phone on the desk and dialed our smart-security provider.
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"Master Security Override Protocol Alpha," I spoke clearly. "De-authorize all secondary key fobs and biometric profiles assigned to Ryan Vance and Lorraine Vance. Re-key the electronic deadbolts across the entire estate, effective 6:00 AM."
"Confirmed, Ms. Sterling," the automated security terminal replied. "All perimeter access revoked."
