Chapter 5 - THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT
Within seventy-two hours of the incident at the dealership, the house of cards didn't merely fall—it was pulverized.
The Chicago business journals ran the headline on their front pages: VANGUARD LOGISTICS VP ARRESTED IN EXTENSIVE WIRE FRAUD AND EMBEZZLEMENT PROBE. The board of directors had held an emergency midnight session, voting unanimously to terminate Thaddius Vance with cause, stripping him of all unvested stock options, deferred compensation packages, and corporate indemnification. Deprived of the company's powerhouse legal defense fund, he was left to face the federal indictments with a public defender and whatever scraps of personal capital hadn't already been frozen by the courts.
I spent Thursday morning in my corner office in downtown Chicago. The brass plaque on the door read simply: Sterling Forensic Accounting Group. It was modest, elegant, and entirely my own, paid for with the sweat of my own brow and the legitimate fees I had earned over a decade of unassailable professional service.
A knock sounded at the frosted glass door. My executive assistant, Sarah, poked her head inside, her eyes wide. "Lysandra... you have visitors. They don't have an appointment, but security didn't want to cause a scene in the lobby."
"Send them in," I said without looking up from my dual-monitor setup.
The door swung open, and Evangelene and Cassiana shuffled into the room.
The contrast between the women standing before me and the imperious aristocrats from three days ago was staggering. Evangelene was no longer wearing the sable coat; it had already been reclaimed by an upscale consignment house to settle an outstanding line of credit. She wore a dated, wrinkled wool coat that hung loosely over her shrunken frame, her once-immaculate silver hair pulled back in a hasty, uneven bun. Cassiana looked devastated—her eyes red-rimmed, wearing an oversized sweatshirt and sunglasses that did little to hide the absence of her usual heavy makeup.
Neither of them spoke for a long moment. The only sound was the hum of my computer tower.
"Take a seat," I said, gesturing calmly toward the two leather guest chairs.
They didn't sit. Evangelene stepped forward, her hands trembling as she leaned heavily on a cheap aluminum cane she had evidently purchased from a local pharmacy.
"Lysandra," the matriarch began, her voice hoarse, completely stripped of its theatrical vibrato. "We... we came to talk. Woman to woman."
"There is no 'woman to woman' between us, Evangelene," I replied, folding my hands over my desk. "There is only creditor and debtor. What do you want?"
"You have to drop the civil attachments," Cassiana blurted out, unable to contain herself. Her voice cracked with genuine desperation. "They locked the doors to my apartment this morning! The landlord says the corporate lease was terminated and all my belongings will be put in storage if I don't pay five months of back rent! I don't have anywhere to go, Lysandra! My friends aren't answering my calls! They’re mocking me online! Do you know what they’re saying about me on TikTok?"
I tilted my head, looking at her with cold curiosity. "Cassiana, for five years, you looked at me every Sunday and told me I was nothing more than an unpaid bookkeeper who got lucky by marrying above her station. You mocked my background, demanded my paychecks to finance your vacations, and treated the world as if it were an interactive catalog built for your consumption. Did you honestly believe that lifestyle was sustainable on stolen money?"
"We didn't know!" Evangelene cried, tears spilling freely down her wrinkled cheeks. "I swear to God, Lysandra, I did not know Thaddius was taking from the trust! I thought Arthur’s investments were still paying out! Thaddius told me the financial restrictions were temporary!"
"You didn't know because you didn't want to know," I countered, standing up and towering over the desk. "You were happy to live in a twenty-room mansion in Oak Brook, attended by private staff and driving European luxury cars, while turning a blind eye to where the cash came from. When the quarterly statements stopped coming from the bank, you didn't ask questions. You just demanded that I 'fix the numbers' so your credit lines wouldn't close."
Evangelene dropped into one of the chairs, burying her face in her gnarled hands. "They’re foreclosing on the house. The sheriff’s notice was posted on the gate yesterday afternoon. Everything... my family's heirlooms, the portraits, the furniture... it's all going to auction."
"Yes," I said without an ounce of pity. "It is. Because that house was remortgaged to pay for your son’s illicit trades, and the equity belongs to the defrauded lenders and the state. Not you."
"Please," Cassiana begged, sinking to her knees beside her mother’s chair, looking up at me with raw terror. "Just give us enough to get an apartment. Fifty thousand dollars. That’s nothing to you now! You took all of Thaddius’s hidden accounts! Just give us enough to survive!"
"I didn't take anything that wasn't legally mine," I said, picking up a folder from my desk and opening it. "Under the terms of our finalized divorce decree and the subsequent restitution agreement signed by the trustee, the court awarded me full title to the non-marital assets Thaddius attempted to conceal in the Caymans. As for your survival, Cassiana, you’re twenty-six years old. You have a bachelor's degree in communications that your mother paid for with stolen funds. I suggest you update your resume and apply for an entry-level job. The real world has been waiting for you."
"You heartless monster!" Evangelene hissed, suddenly flaring up with a dying ember of her former venom. "God will punish you for this! You destroyed an honorable family!"
"No, Evangelene," I said, picking up my desk phone and buzzing security. "Your family was never honorable. It was just expensive. And the bill has finally come due."
May you like
Two building security guards appeared at the doorway. "Ladies, you need to leave the premises immediately, or we will have the police escort you out for criminal trespassing."
Cassiana pulled her mother up from the chair. As they were led out into the corridor, heads turned in every office along the hallway, watching the once-glamorous Vance women stumble toward the elevators, stripped of their vanity, their wealth, and their pride.
