Chapter 5 - The Collapse
The fallout was spectacular, swift, and completely merciless.
By Monday morning, Vanguard Tech’s stock had plummeted to pennies. The investors, terrified of the fraud allegations, pulled out immediately. The bank called in the seven-million-dollar loan, which Adrian obviously couldn't pay since his assets were frozen by the federal government.
Adrian spent the weekend in a holding cell. Because he was considered a flight risk with hidden assets, the judge denied bail.
Vanessa, true to her nature, sang like a canary.
She gave the feds every password, every email, and every secret Adrian had ever muttered in his sleep in exchange for immunity. In doing so, she revealed that Adrian had been embezzling from his own company for years to fund their affair.
On Wednesday, I sat in my mother’s sprawling corner office in downtown Manhattan.
The door opened, and Adrian was brought in by his overworked public defender and two guards. He looked like a ghost of the man from the hospital. His designer suit was wrinkled, his hair was greasy, and his eyes were hollow.
He sat across from me, trembling.
“Serena,” he choked out, tears pooling in his eyes. “Please. I’m sorry. I was out of my mind. The stress of the company, the babies... I made a mistake.”
I looked at him, feeling nothing. No anger, no sadness. Just a profound sense of relief that this parasite was finally out of my life.
“You didn't make a mistake, Adrian,” I said, my voice steady. “A mistake is forgetting to buy milk. You orchestrated a calculated plot to leave the mother of your newborn children destitute on the street. You just picked the wrong woman to do it to.”
“They’re offering me ten years,” he sobbed, burying his face in his hands. “Ten years in a federal penitentiary, Serena. I’ll never see my children grow up.”
“You didn't want to see them grow up,” I reminded him. “You called them a burden. You called me too ugly to keep. Remember?”
He squeezed his eyes shut, his tears falling onto the glass table. “What do you want from me? I have nothing left.”
I slid a thick stack of papers across the table.
“These are the new divorce terms,” I said.
His lawyer leaned forward, scanning the documents quickly. The lawyer’s eyes widened.
“You’re asking for sole legal and physical custody,” the lawyer said. “Termination of all parental rights. No visitation. And he waives any claim to marital assets, assuming there are any left after the feds take their cut.”
“If he signs it,” my mother interjected smoothly from the corner of the room, “we will instruct the family trust to drop the civil suits against him. It won't save him from prison, but it will keep him out of debt when he gets out in a decade.”
Adrian looked up at me, broken. “You’re taking my children.”
“I am protecting my children,” I corrected. “Sign the papers, Adrian. You always loved signing things.”
His hand shook as he took the pen.
He didn't cross out the box this time. He signed exactly where he was told.
As the guards pulled him to his feet to take him back to his cell, he looked back at me one last time.
May you like
“Who are you?” he whispered.
“I’m Serena Sterling,” I said. “And I’m a very good lawyer.”
