Chapter 15 - The Unraveling of the SyndicateThe front page of every major national newspaper carried a single, massive headline the next morning: #TheSterlingSyndicate Exposed: Federal Raids Uncover Decades of Corruption.
Television networks played non-stop footage of federal marshals carting dozens of boxes of evidence out of the secret mansion vault. Bank accounts across three continents were frozen simultaneously by international financial regulators. The board members who had tried to distance themselves from Victoria and Thomas Sterling suddenly found themselves slapped with federal RICO indictments, asset forfeitures, and criminal conspiracy charges.
Inside the federal courthouse, Judge Alistair Vance didn't even blink as he signed twenty-seven separate arrest warrants for the remaining architects of the child trafficking ring.
In her maximum-security prison cell, Victoria Sterling watched the breaking news report on a small, fuzzy wall-mounted television screen. As she saw the images of her family's name being systematically scrubbed from public buildings, universities, and corporate towers, she let out a hollow, shattered scream that echoed down the concrete cellblock before collapsing onto the cold floor.
