Chapter 7 - The Audit of a LieBy Monday morning, the full scope of Victor’s web of deception had come to light, and it was far more extensive than even Evelyn Vance had initially calculated.
Jessica sat at her kitchen island, reviewing the forensic audit reports provided by her legal team.
It turned out that Madison Hughes was not the first "Madison."
Buried deep within old credit card statements from three years prior, Jessica discovered a pattern—a recurring series of weekend hotel stays, jewelry store purchases, and Venmo transfers to a woman named Chloe Sterling. Then, a year later, another woman named Brittany Lane.
Victor hadn't just strayed; he was a serial emotional and financial parasite who had been bleeding their marital assets for years to fund a rotating cast of disposable side relationships, all while hiding behind the veneer of a devoted suburban husband.
And yet, he had been so arrogant, so utterly convinced of his own superiority, that he thought Jessica was too blind to ever uncover the truth.
Her phone rang, snapping her out of her thoughts.
It was her mother’s care facility.
Jessica’s heart skipped a beat, a familiar wave of hospital anxiety washing over her. She answered immediately. "Hello? Is everything okay with my mother?"
"Hi, Jessica, it’s Nurse Brenda," the kind voice on the other end said reassuringly. "Your mother is doing fine, resting comfortably. But there’s a gentleman here in the lobby asking for you. He says he’s your husband’s father, but he looks very distressed and insists he needs to speak with you urgently."
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Jessica frowned. Arthur Whitmore? Victor’s father had always been a distant, gruff man who rarely visited and treated Jessica like hired help whenever he came over for Sunday pot roast.
"Tell him I'll be there in twenty minutes," Jessica said.
