Chapter 6 - The Unraveling

Adrian’s breath left his lungs in a ragged gasp. The arrogant corporate heir who had stood over me in the kitchen, demanding that I kneel and learn my place, disintegrated completely into a weeping, trembling shell.

"Mara... please... listen to me..." Adrian sobbed, trying to twist his neck toward me as the agents hauled him upright. "It was a joke! Just a family joke! My mother is old-fashioned, she wanted to see if you had grit! I love you, Mara! We can fix this! Take the company, take the stock—just drop the federal charges! I’ll give you everything!"

"A joke?" I stepped back, crossing my arms. "You threw a filthy fryer rag into my face, locked me in a bedroom, and told me to get on my knees. You thought I was a stray animal you could break with a snap of your fingers."

Agent Reynolds shoved Adrian forward toward the elevator doors. "Save your defense for ADX Florence, Vale. You'll have plenty of time to explain your sense of humor to federal inmates."

"Father! Mother! Help me!" Adrian shrieked as the elevator doors parted, his designer shoes scuffing against the marble as he was dragged into the car.

Charles Vale didn't look at his son. The old man was slumped in his chair, staring blankly at the sixty-page indictment, his hands limp in the steel restraints. At seventy-one, with four counts of wire fraud and complicity in murder, he would spend the remainder of his natural life behind concrete walls.

And Celeste Vale? She sat catatonic on the sofa, flanked by two armed female marshals, her diamond necklace looking like a heavy, vulgar shackle around her sagging neck.

I walked back to the head of the mahogany table, pulled out the high-backed leather chair, and sat down.

May you like

My fiancé let his friend chop off my mother’s waist-length

My husband spent the night with another woman

My husband brought his mistress to our nine-year-old daughter’s dance

"Ladies and gentlemen of the board," I said, looking across the pale, silent faces of the remaining directors. "The era of the Vale family is over. The forensic audit begins immediately. Financial disclosures will be filed with the SEC before five o'clock.

Now, if you will excuse me... I have an estate to reclaim."