Chapter 3 - Unraveling the Web
Forty-eight hours later, I sat at the executive mahogany desk in my penthouse office overlooking the Manhattan skyline, though my heart remained anchored to the hospital room in Paradise Valley where Irene was resting under 24-hour private guard.
The double doors of my office swung open, and Marcus Vance, my senior corporate counsel and oldest friend, strode in carrying a thick stack of forensic accounting files and encrypted hard drives.
"Austin," Marcus said without preamble, dropping the files onto my desk with a heavy thud. "You’re not going to believe the scale of this. We audited the accounts Margaret and Carla have been managing through the Wentworth Family Foundation over the past four years."
"Give me the bottom line, Marcus," I said coldly, not looking up from the security footage playing on my monitor—footage of my mother and sister being booked into the county jail down in Arizona.
"They’ve systematically looted twelve million dollars from your philanthropic trust and offshore development accounts," Marcus said, pulling out a financial spreadsheet. "Carla didn't just fail her bar exam three years ago—she was disbarred from her legal internship for embezzling client trust funds. Your mother paid off the firm to bury the scandal. And that brownstone in Boston that Margaret claimed she bought with my father’s life insurance? It was purchased using funds siphoned directly from the startup capital you gave me for the tech expansion in 2023."
I leaned back in my leather chair, staring out the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the grey rain falling over the city. Every act of generosity I had shown them—every holiday bonus, every car, every mortgage payment—had been treated not as a gift from a loving son and brother, but as an entitlement by two parasites who viewed me merely as an ATM machine.
"What about their legal defense?" I asked. "Are they still claiming it was a setup?"
"They tried," Marcus smirked, tapping a digital tablet. "Until District Attorney Vance—no relation to me, thank God—reviewed the 4K video recording you handed over from your bedroom. Combined with the forged property deeds found in Carla's possession and the medical tampering notes recovered from their shared storage unit in Scottsdale, the grand jury didn't even deliberate. They returned a multi-count indictment this morning: aggravated burglary, first-degree assault on a pregnant individual, conspiracy to commit murder, and wire fraud."
"Bail?"
"Denied," Marcus said firmly. "Flight risk, plus the severity of the charges involving unborn minors. They’re sitting in maximum security awaiting arraignment."
My phone buzzed on the desk. It was an encrypted notification from the hospital security detail.
May you like
“Mr. Wentworth, your wife is awake and asking for you. Vitals are stabilizing.”
I stood up immediately, buttoning my suit jacket. "Marcus, take over operations here. Freeze every asset tied to my mother’s name, cancel all supplementary credit cards, and ensure that their defense attorneys receive zero financial backing from our corporate accounts. They wanted to strip me of everything? Let's see how they survive without a single dime."
