Chapter 6 - Chloe's True Colors
The county holding facility smelled of industrial bleach and defeat.
Gavin sat in a cramped visitation booth, his wet suit wrinkled and emitting a sour odor, his hair sticking up in wild tufts. The purple bruise on his cheek from being pressed against the squad car hood throbbed with every heartbeat.
Across the glass partition, a visitor finally sat down. It wasn't his mother—Florence had taken a heavy sedative and refused to leave her bed.
It was Chloe.
Gavin let out a desperate, ragged sigh of relief, pressing his hand against the glass. “Chloe… baby, thank god. You have to bail me out. The bail is set at ten thousand dollars. Use the corporate card—wait, no, Apex froze it. Use your LLC account! You have forty thousand sitting in the retainer fund I transferred last month!”
Chloe looked at him through the smudged glass. She wasn't wearing her oversized sunglasses now. Her face was cold, calculating, and utterly devoid of the flirtatious warmth she had used to wrap him around her finger for eighteen months.
“Are you out of your mind, Gavin?” she whispered coldly through the receiver.
Gavin blinked, stunned. “What? Chloe, it’s me! We’re partners! We’re going to take the house, we’re going to live together—”
“There is no house, you idiot!” Chloe hissed, leaning closer to the glass. “Your mother’s lawyer called me this morning. Valerie holds a first-position lien that completely wipes out any equity. Florence is practically bankrupt, and the house is going to judicial foreclosure in ten days because your mother can't pay the hundred and sixty thousand dollars!”
“We can fight it! We can hire a better lawyer—”
“With what money?” Chloe snapped. “Apex sent an audit team to my apartment three hours ago, accompanied by an investigator from the state insurance fraud division! They know about the ‘consulting fees,’ Gavin! They know you falsified vendor invoices to funnel company funds into my LLC!”
Gavin’s heart plummeted into a bottomless pit. “Chloe… you didn't tell them anything, did you?”
Chloe let out a bitter, mocking laugh. “Did you think I was going to prison for you? For grand larceny and wire fraud? I signed a full cooperation agreement with Arthur Sterling and Valerie’s attorney forty-five minutes ago.”
Gavin dropped the telephone receiver. It dangled against the metal partition, swinging like a pendulum, emitting Chloe’s muffled, venomous voice.
He scrambled to grab it back, his hands shaking violently. “You did what? You signed an agreement? Chloe! I gave you everything! I bought you that car! I gave you that loft!”
“You bought those with stolen money and marital assets that belonged to your wife!” Chloe snarled. “Daniel Reyes offered me complete immunity from criminal indictment if I turned over every text message, every bank statement, and every email proving that you orchestrated the entire embezzlement scheme yourself. And guess what? I gave them everything. I gave them your voicemails where you laughed about leaving Valerie with zero child support. I gave them the spreadsheets where you calculated how to hide offshore crypto accounts.”
“You traitor…” Gavin wheezed, his eyes bulging. “You evil, ungrateful snake!”
“I was an opportunist, Gavin. But you? You’re just stupid,” Chloe said, standing up and smoothing down her designer coat. “I thought you were a wealthy corporate heir with a sprawling estate. Turns out you’re an unemployed thief whose mother lives on credit cards, and whose wife owns every brick you ever stood on. Have fun in prison, Gavin. Don't ever contact me again.”
She hung up the receiver, turned around, and walked out of the visitor room without looking back.
May you like
Gavin slammed his fists against the glass, screaming until his vocal cords tore, before two correctional officers hauled him backward, forcing him down to his knees on the concrete floor.
***
