Chapter 5 - THE SINKING SHIPWith Ryan locked away in a federal holding facility awaiting trial without bail, his inner circle began turning on each other like starved rats in a cage.
Three days after the press conference disaster, I sat in the executive conference room of Sterling & Associates. Sitting across from me was Madison Reed, looking exhausted, disheveled, and pale.
Beside her was her court-appointed public defender.
“Mrs. Vance,” the public defender began nervously. “My client, Madison, wants to cooperate fully with the prosecution. She had no idea that the money Ryan transferred into her Swiss account came from stolen pension funds or a pediatric cancer charity. Ryan told her it was his legitimate corporate bonus.”
Madison looked at me with eyes full of tears, her hands shaking violently. “Claire… please. I was stupid. I was vain. He lied to me! He told me you were abusive and that he was going to marry me as soon as his business deal went through. I didn’t know he was stealing from sick children!”
I took a slow sip of my coffee, setting the cup down with a sharp clink.
“Madison,” I said coldly. “You stood in my home. You wore my emerald silk robe. You drank from my favorite mug and laughed while his mother threw my grandmother’s picture into a trash bag. You were more than happy to enjoy the fruits of his crime as long as you thought you were winning.”
“I’m sorry!” Madison sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “I’ll give everything back! The clothes, the jewelry, the designer bags he bought me—take it all!”
“Oh, I am taking it all,” I informed her smoothly. “Every single asset Ryan bought you with embezzled money is being seized under civil asset forfeiture. But if you want to avoid being indicted as an unindicted co-conspirator in federal court, you’re going to do something for me.”
Madison looked up, wiping her running mascara. “Anything! What do you want?!”
“I want the encrypted flash drive Ryan gave you last Tuesday,” I said.
Madison’s eyes widened in shock. “How… how do you know about that?”
“Ryan didn’t trust his own parents, and he certainly didn’t trust his offshore bookies,” I replied, leaning forward. “He gave you a silver USB drive disguised as a key ring and told you to hide it in your mother’s house in Ohio. That drive contains the ledger of every dirty politician and corrupt banker who helped him launder money over the last three years.”
Madison swallowed hard, looking at her attorney, who nodded silently at her to cooperate.
“If I give you the drive… will you promise not to sue me personally?” Madison begged.
“I won’t destroy your life completely,” I offered flatly. “I’ll leave you with enough to pay your legal fees and secure an apartment. But if you lie to me, Madison, I will make sure you share a cell block with Ryan’s mother.”
Ten minutes later, Madison signed a full confession and surrendered the location of the flash drive.
Meanwhile, Patricia and her husband were facing their own nightmare.
Having been evicted from the mansion and cut off from Ryan’s funds, they were forced to rent a tiny one-bedroom basement apartment in a sketchy part of town. Without money to pay Ryan’s expensive private defense attorneys, Patricia went to the local news channels, attempting to sell “exclusive tell-all interviews” about my family.
Unluckily for her, no news organization would touch her story after Victor Sterling issued formal cease-and-desist warnings threatening $10 million defamation lawsuits against any network that aired her claims.
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Desperate for cash, Patricia turned to selling her fake designer handbags on online auction sites—only to be flagged for selling counterfeit goods and hit with account freezes.
The paper kingdom Ryan had constructed was falling apart piece by piece, brick by brick. And I hadn’t even delivered the final blow yet.
