Chapter 10 - The Broken Alibi
By Wednesday morning, the local Phoenix news had picked up the story of the disgraced San Diego executive arrested in a luxury auto showroom.
A blurry cell phone video showed Lucas being led out of the glass building in handcuffs, wearing a rumpled collared shirt and staring down at the asphalt while reporters shouted questions from behind yellow police tape.
In San Diego, the fallout was swift and merciless.
Chloe Vance sat in the conference room of a public defender’s office in downtown San Diego, clutching a paper cup of water.
She had been served with a formal subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, along with a civil suit from Apex Capital demanding the full reimbursement of eighty-six thousand dollars in fraudulent travel claims.
Her apartment lease in Mission Valley had been canceled by the landlord due to an unverified corporate income guarantee.
Her father had refused to take her calls after Eleanor Vance had formally briefed the extended family on her conduct.
Sitting across from her was Detective Harrison from the San Diego County Financial Crimes Division.
"Look at the dates, Chloe," Harrison said, laying out a flight log from July 2025.
"Mr. Miller claimed these five flights to Cabo were for market research on Latin American investment corridors."
"Your name is listed on every boarding pass."
"I didn't know he was using company funds!" Chloe wept, pressing her fingers against her swollen eyes.
"He told me he had an unlimited discretionary entertainment account!"
"He told me his wife was an heiress who didn't care how he spent his executive salary!"
"Ignorance is not an affirmative defense against corporate grand theft, Ms. Vance," Harrison said, leaning forward.
"Especially when you signed three separate travel expense verification vouchers as the secondary approving party."
"He made me sign them!" she cried out. "He said that's how corporate protocols worked for Senior Vice Presidents!"
"Well," Harrison said with a dry, unsympathetic smirk, "the United States Attorney’s office disagrees."
"If you want to stay out of a state penitentiary, Ms. Vance, you have exactly one path forward."
Chloe looked up, her lower lip trembling. "What path?"
"You sign a full sworn affidavit detailing every transaction, every conversation, and every fraudulent voucher Lucas Miller ordered you to execute over the last fourteen months."
"You become the state's star witness against him."
"And what happens to me?" she asked.
"You lose your financial licenses," Harrison said bluntly.
"You perform four hundred hours of community service."
"You pay back thirty thousand dollars in restitution."
"And you never work in institutional wealth management again."
Chloe stared at the pen lying on the wooden table.
Only four days ago, she had stood in my living room, wearing an emerald dress, sneering at my homemade cake, and declaring that Lucas had outgrown me.
Now, she reached for the cheap blue ballpoint pen with trembling fingers.
She signed the state's agreement without hesitating for another second.
May you like
She threw Lucas Miller under the wheels of the legal train to save herself from the cell block.
The alliance that began with stolen kisses in executive elevators died on a cheap linoleum desk beneath flickering fluorescent tubes.
