Chapter 4 - The House of Cards CollapsesBack at the estate, the police barricades had drawn a swarm of local reporters and paparazzi. Satellite trucks from regional news networks crowded the cul-de-sac, their massive broadcast dishes pointed directly at our front door as detectives carried cardboard boxes filled with documents, hard drives, and financial ledgers out to an unmarked van.
I flashed my ID to the perimeter officer, ducked under yellow police tape, and walked up the front steps.
Inside, the mansion was unrecognizable. The polished marble floors were smudged with forensic powder, and the heavy mahogany doors to Julian’s private study stood wide open. Two state financial investigators in sharp gray suits were meticulously combing through his filing cabinets.
Detective Vance was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the rear gardens, holding a thick manila folder. When he heard my footsteps, he turned around, a grim, complicated expression on his face.
"You knew about this too, didn't you, Clara?" Vance asked quietly, tossing the folder onto the desk.
I walked over, picked up the top document, and skimmed the lines of numbers. It was a wire transfer confirmation routing 1.4 million dollars from a Carter Holdings subsidiary account into a shell corporation registered under Sienna’s maiden name.
"I knew Julian was reckless," I replied, tossing the folder back onto the desk. "I didn't know he was stupid enough to leave a paper trail linking corporate fraud directly to his mistress."
"It's worse than that," Vance sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "We pulled the hard drive from his office safe. Not only was he embezzling from the family trust to fund Sienna’s shopping sprees, but he was also using company funds to pay off dangerous private debts. If Julian wakes up from that hospital bed, he isn't just facing marital dissolution. He’s looking at twenty federal felony counts of wire fraud and grand larceny. He'll spend the rest of his life behind bars."
I didn't feel a shred of pity. When a man builds his entire life on the assumption that everyone around him is too weak or too blind to fight back, his fall is always absolute.
"Where is Sienna?" I asked.
"She's being held at the precinct for questioning," Vance replied, eyeing me closely. "Her lawyer is trying to cut a deal. She's claiming that Julian forced her into the affair, that he threatened to ruin Ethan's construction business if she didn't comply."
I let out a cold, sharp laugh. "Sienna was just as greedy as Julian. She loved the diamonds, she loved the cars, and she loved feeling like she had outsmarted everyone in this family. Let her try to play the victim. The financial records won't lie."
As Vance turned back to confer with the investigators, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
It was a text message from an unknown number.
“I know what you did in the garage, Clara. We need to talk before I tell the police about your grandfather's old veterinary supplies.”
May you like
My heart skipped a single beat.
I unlocked the phone and stared at the screen. There was no name attached, but the threat was unmistakable. Someone had seen me in the garage two nights ago. Someone knew that the veterinary sedative in Julian's system wasn't an accident—it was premeditated, calculated poison administered by a wife pushed past her absolute breaking point.
