Chapter 5 - The Corporate Scavenger Hunt
The fallout from Luke’s public federal arrest moved at lightning speed. Within forty-eight hours, the financial news networks had picked up the story, splashing headlines across financial blogs and local evening news broadcasts: WALL STREET EXECUTIVE ARRESTED IN MASSIVE EMBEZZLEMENT SCANDAL; OFFSHORE ASSETS SEIZED.
Sterling Logistics, the multi-million-dollar corporation where Luke had served as an executive vice president, immediately launched an internal crisis management protocol. They suspended Luke without pay, distanced themselves from his illicit activities, and brought in an independent forensic legal team to audit every department he had touched over the past five years.
And guess who the independent legal counsel was?
Alec Vance’s firm.
On a rainy Thursday morning, three days after the disastrous pool party, I sat in Alec’s sprawling, glass-walled corner office on the fortieth floor of downtown Boston’s financial district. Below us, the city streets were blurred by a steady sheet of autumn mist, cars moving like tiny colored beetles through the gray haze.
I was reviewing the preliminary asset-recovery redistribution schedules spread across Alec’s massive mahogany desk.
"Wait," I frowned, tapping my finger against a specific line item on page four of the financial restitution draft. "Alec, look at this. The federal judge is releasing eighty percent of the frozen marital assets back to me as primary custodial restitution?"
Alec looked up from his computer monitor, leaning back in his executive leather chair, a subtle, pleased smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Not just primary restitution, Clara. Under the statutory provisions for white-collar financial abandonment and fraudulent asset concealment during legal separation proceedings, the court has ruled that Luke’s hidden Cayman accounts were built using joint marital capital."
My jaw dropped. I stared at the figures on the page. "This... this is over two million dollars. This is half of everything he tried to hide."
"It's your money, Clara," Alec said gently, standing up from his desk and walking over to stand beside my chair. He rested his hands on the back of the leather seat, leaning down so his voice was right beside my ear. "It’s money you earned, money you sacrificed for while he was wining and dining his mistress in Back Bay. You're not just surviving anymore. You're fully, independently secure."
I looked up at him, my heart hammering against my ribs. "I don't even know how to process this. Six months ago, I was wondering how I was going to afford formula and rent. Now... now I can buy a house outright."
"You can do whatever you want," Alec murmured, his hand gently resting on my shoulder, his thumb stroking the fabric of my blazer. "The world is yours, Clara."
Before I could answer, a sharp rap sounded against the frosted glass door of the office.
May you like
Without waiting for an invitation, the door swung open, and standing in the entryway was a disheveled, wild-eyed figure who looked like he had aged ten years in seventy-two hours.
It was Luke’s mother—my former mother-in-law, Evelyn Vance.
