Chapter 6 - The Morning Paper
By seven o'clock the following morning, the Sterling wedding had become the biggest social scandal the state had seen in decades.
A high-profile guest had secretly livestreamed Vanessa’s exposure, and the clip had already garnered over four million views across social media platforms. The hashtag #RunawayGroom was trending worldwide, accompanied by sharp commentaries on the brazenness of Marcus Vance and the cold-blooded calculation of the bride.
Lily was sitting at our small kitchen table, calmly eating a bowl of oatmeal while drawing a picture of our cat. Looking at her innocent face, it was impossible to fathom how much courage she had shown the night before.
"Mommy?" she asked, looking up. "Is Uncle Graham mad at us?"
"No, sweetheart," I said, kissing her hair. "Uncle Graham is very thankful. You saved him from making a terrible mistake."
A heavy knock sounded at the front door of our modest two-bedroom apartment. My heart leaped into my throat. If it was my mother or Vanessa coming to harass us, I was fully prepared to call the police.
I peered through the peephole and breathed a sigh of relief. Standing on the porch was a tall woman in a sharp navy blazer, carrying a leather briefcase, flanked by two men in suits.
I opened the door cautiously. "Can I help you?"
"Claire Miller?" the woman asked, offering a warm, professional smile. "I'm Evelyn Hayes, senior legal counsel for Sterling Global Enterprises. Mr. Graham Sterling asked me to come by personally. May we have a few minutes of your time?"
I invited them into the small living room. Evelyn sat on our worn sofa, declining coffee with polite grace, and opened her briefcase.
"First of all," Evelyn began, "Marcus Vance was formally terminated from all corporate positions at four-thirty this morning. By eight o'clock, the county prosecutor’s office initiated a preliminary inquiry into financial embezzlement involving several non-profit funds he managed alongside your sister."
I swallowed hard. "Vanessa was stealing from charities?"
"Worse," Evelyn replied. "They were using a shell company under your father's old business registry to launder the stolen capital. Had the marriage taken place, the legal paperwork Vanessa prepared would have left *you* named as a secondary trustee of that shell company."
May you like
The room seemed to spin. I grabbed the edge of the kitchen counter to steady myself. "She was trying to set me up to take the fall?"
"If the fraud had been uncovered after the wedding," Evelyn said gravely, "the paper trail led straight to your bank accounts. Vanessa would have walked away with Graham's offshore assets, while you would have faced federal prison time. Your daughter didn't just save Graham's fortune last night, Claire. She saved you from a federal indictment."
