The phone remained pressed to my ear, but the voice of Gloria—my mother-in-law, my parasite-in-law—faded into white noise. I stared past the glass wall of the corporate skyscraper at the Chicago skyline, glittering like an endless circuit board under a frozen night sky. / Chapter 7 / 20

Chapter 7 - The Final SignatureSebastian raised his head slowly, his eyes bloodshot and desperate. "What... what else could there possibly be?"

I pulled a second document from my briefcase—a crisp, single-page document bearing an official stamp from the Illinois State Attorney's office.

"Four days ago, Alyssa placed a financial authorization on my desk," I said, my voice echoing quietly across the patio. "She told me it was a routine vendor sign-off for office catering and tech upgrades."

Alyssa flinched violently, taking a half-step backward into the stucco wall.

"I didn't sign it," I continued. "Instead, I handed it over to my corporate compliance team. Do you know what they found, Sebastian? They found that the vendor listed on that authorization wasn't an office supplier. It was a shell company registered in the Cayman Islands under Alyssa's maiden name—funded by a fraudulent line of credit attached to Carter Holdings' primary payroll account."

Sebastian stared at Alyssa in sheer horror. "Alyssa... what is she talking about?"

"It's a lie!" Alyssa shrieked, her voice cracking with hysteria. "She's making it up! She's trying to ruin us!"

"I don't have to make anything up, Alyssa," I said calmly, sliding the document across the table toward them. "The bank flagged it as an attempted corporate wire fraud. Under federal law, unauthorized wire transfers of over one million dollars intended for overseas shell accounts carry a mandatory investigation by the financial crimes division."

Gloria stepped forward, her face turning a deep, angry shade of purple. "You wouldn't! You wouldn't put your own husband—"

"He is no longer my husband, Gloria," I corrected her sharply. "And as for the fraud charge? That wasn't filed against Sebastian. It was filed against the primary signatory of the shell company."

I paused, letting the silence stretch until the sound of the ocean waves was the only thing left on the patio.

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"That would be Alyssa."

Alyssa let out a sharp, breathless gasp, her hands flying to her mouth as her knees buckled. She slid down the stucco wall, landing hard on the pavement, sobbing hysterically as the reality of federal wire fraud crashed down upon her.