Chapter 4 - Ashes to Ashes
The next morning, the financial world woke up to a massacre.
Lying on my stomach in the penthouse suite of a private hospital, surrounded by the best trauma surgeons money could buy, I watched the news on a massive flat screen.
VALE INNOVATIONS COLLAPSES OVERNIGHT: CEO INVESTIGATED FOR MASSIVE FRAUD
The anchors were baffled. An empire built over a decade had been systematically dismantled between the hours of 9 PM and midnight. What the public didn't know was that Adrian's entire success was a house of cards I had secretly propped up. I had loved him. I had wanted him to feel like a self-made king, never realizing he would use his imaginary crown to look down on me.
By noon, the estate we shared was surrounded by federal agents and repo men. The house wasn't in Adrian's name; it was owned by a blind trust managed by Sterling Corp. The cars, the art, the private jet—all repossessed.
My father sat beside my bed, feeding me fresh fruit. "He tried to access his offshore accounts this morning," Dad noted casually. "Turns out, those accounts were heavily invested in a crypto firm that miraculously went bankrupt at 3:00 AM."
I managed a small, painful smile. "What about the mistress?"
"Vanessa?" My father chuckled darkly. "She’s currently standing on the sidewalk with two Louis Vuitton suitcases, screaming at a repo man who just towed her Range Rover."
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For Adrian, the descent was absolute. He had spent years cultivating an image of a ruthless, brilliant titan. Now, he was toxic waste. His country club memberships were revoked. His "friends" in the elite circles blocked his number. He couldn't even hire a decent defense attorney, because any firm worth its salt was either on my father's payroll or terrified of crossing him.
Adrian had wanted to throw me away because I was "dead weight." Now, he was learning what it felt like to drown.
