Chapter 3 - THE CORPORATE SHADOW WARBy Thursday morning, the news of Gregory’s arrest had not yet hit the public, but it had reached the one place Gregory cared about more than his own mother: his job.
Gregory was the senior vice president of acquisitions at Sterling & Hayes Wealth Management, a prestigious firm known for its cutthroat culture. What the firm didn't know—until I sent an encrypted digital package directly to the managing partners at 7:00 AM—was that Gregory had been using company accounts to fund his personal debts and wine-and-dine lifestyle while courting me.
I sat at my home office desk, sipping black coffee while watching the live feeds of my security system on one monitor and tracking corporate stock fluctuations on another.
My phone buzzed violently. It was an incoming call from an unknown number, but the country code and prefix were unmistakable: Sterling & Hayes Legal.
I swiped to answer.
"Is this Ms. Eleanor Vance?" a tense, gravelly voice demanded. This was Arthur Sterling, founding partner.
"Speaking, Mr. Sterling."
"We received the financial audit files regarding Gregory Vance's division. Good God, woman... he’s embezzled nearly four hundred thousand dollars over the last twenty-four hours using shell accounts linked to your pre-wedding address."
A cold smile touched my lips. "Correction, Arthur. He tried to frame those transactions to look like my pre-wedding expenditures. Fortunately, my personal accounting ledger is airtight. Every cent he funneled out can be traced directly back to his offshore accounts in the Caymans—accounts he opened using his mother's maiden name."
There was a heavy pause on the line. "He's finished," Sterling whispered. "We are locking him out of the system right now. But Eleanor... why come to us? Why not let the police handle it?"
"Because," I replied smoothly, "the police handle criminals. I handle liquidations."
"What do you want?"
"Gregory signed a post-nuptial financial disclosure agreement three days ago, right before the wedding ceremony. Clause 14 stipulates that any financial misconduct or hidden debt discovered post-signing results in the immediate forfeiture of all personal holdings, shared assets, and employment severance packages to the aggrieved spouse."
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Arthur Sterling let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "You had him sign a nuclear clause before he even walked down the aisle?"
"I'm a financial analyst, Arthur," I said, my voice dropping an octave. "I never invest without an exit strategy. And Gregory was the worst investment of my life—time to cut my losses."
