Chapter 4 - The Blood on the Pearls
The silence in the boardroom was suffocating. Victoria tried to regain her composure, pointing an elegant finger at Sophia. “This is marital property! Every share she bought during the marriage belongs to my son under joint asset laws!”
Sophia didn't even look up from her tablet. “No, Mrs. Vance. The shares were purchased using funds from a premarital trust managed by an offshore corporate entity. Under the terms of the prenuptial agreement you forced Audrey to sign, all trust assets and their appreciation are strictly excluded from marital division.”
Victoria’s face twisted into an ugly, desperate mask. “That prenup was designed to protect Dominic’s wealth!”
“It did,” Sophia said smoothly. “It protected him from ever getting a single penny of Audrey’s eighty-million-dollar fortune.”
Dominic grabbed the certificates, his eyes darting across the gold-embossed seals. “Crestwood... Graham Crestwood was your father? You told me he was a retired accountant!”
“He was,” I said. “He was also a private infrastructure investor who owned half the transit grids in the Midwest. I answered every question you asked me, Dominic. You just never bothered to ask who I actually was.”
Paige turned to Dominic, her voice rising in panic. “Dominic, you told me you owned this entire building! You told me she was nothing!”
Dominic didn't answer her. He couldn't.
I gave Sophia a slight nod, and she dimmed the boardroom lights. The massive presentation screen behind me flickered to life, displaying a series of financial ledgers, bank routing numbers, and text message screenshots.
“For the past eighteen months,” I announced, “Dominic has been embezzling funds from Vance Development, routing them through a fake consulting firm registered in Paige Mercer's name. They used company capital to fund Paige’s luxury apartment, her Porsche, and even Victoria’s recent vacation home deposit in Naples.”
The screen shifted, displaying the text messages between them:
Dominic to Paige: 'Move the next 50k through the LLC. Audrey is too stupid to check the accounts.' Victoria to Dominic: 'Once Audrey is gone, we'll clean up the corporate ownership. She is becoming an inconvenience to our lifestyle.'
Dominic’s voice cracked. “Those are fake! They’re taken out of context!”
Martin Hale looked at him over his reading glasses. “Which part, Dominic? The grand larceny, or the absolute lack of intelligence in your cover-up?”
“But we aren't here just to talk about white-collar crime,” I said, my voice dropping to an icy whisper. “Let’s look at the afternoon of my accident.”
The screen changed again. The security footage of the grand foyer appeared. The video was clear, high-definition, and agonizingly loud.
On the screen, I was standing near the top of the marble staircase, holding my phone. Victoria walked up behind me, her face contorted with rage. Dominic stood in the hallway, adjusting his tie, completely ignored me as he took a call from Paige.
“You have embarrassed this family for the last time, Audrey,” Victoria’s voice boomed through the boardroom speakers.
“I’m not discussing this while Dominic lies to my face,” my recorded voice answered.
Then came the push.
It wasn't a clumsy accident. It was a vicious, two-handed shove directly into my shoulder blades. The camera caught the exact moment my body went over the edge. It caught Dominic turning his head, watching me tumble down twenty marble steps, and saying, “Mom, not so hard,” before turning back to his phone.
The boardroom was dead silent. Even Paige was staring at Dominic with horror.
“You... you recorded us?” Victoria whispered, her face completely drained of color.
“My security system recorded a attempted murder,” I corrected.
Right on cue, the double doors of the boardroom swung open. Two plainclothes detectives, followed by four uniformed Chicago police officers and a district attorney, marched into the room.
Detective Marla Gaines stepped forward, pulling a pair of handcuffs from her belt. “Dominic Vance, you are under arrest for corporate embezzlement, grand larceny, conspiracy, and failure to render aid.”
Dominic stumbled backward as the officers grabbed his arms. “No! This is a mistake! Audrey, please!”
Detective Gaines then turned to Victoria, who was frozen in her seat. “Victoria Vance, you are under arrest for aggravated assault, attempted murder, and evidence tampering.”
“Do not touch me!” Victoria shrieked as an officer forced her hands behind her back. “Do you know who I am? Audrey, you will pay for this!”
Paige Mercer burst into hysterical tears, throwing her hands in the air. “I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! I didn't know about the stairs, I swear! Dominic forced me to sign those financial papers! I have all his texts!”
Dominic looked at his mistress, his eyes wide with betrayal. “Paige? You said you loved me!”
Paige wiped her running makeup, glaring at him with pure disgust. “I loved the money you stole, Dominic. It turns out you’re just a broke fraud.”
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As the police led them out in handcuffs, Dominic turned to me one last time, his voice cracking with desperation. “Audrey! I lost my baby too! Please, have some mercy!”
I stood up, walking to the edge of the table, looking down at him. “No, Dominic. You abandoned us long before you even knew we existed. You don't get to claim a child you helped kill.”
