Chapter 8 - The Empire Crumbles
The following days were a whirlwind of legal depositions and media firestorms. The story of the "Family Fortune" was, in reality, a sprawling disaster of embezzlement, tax evasion, and money laundering. As the press dug into the wreckage, they found that Vivian had been the architect of the fraud, with Daniel acting as the willing, greedy executor.
I sat in the deposition room, surrounded by lawyers. When Daniel was brought in, his eyes darted around the room, frantic and hollow. He looked at me, his gaze searching for the familiar "submissive" woman, but when he saw the cold, detached expression on my face, his composure finally shattered.
"You did this," he whispered, his voice cracking. "You ruined us. We were a family."
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"You were a predator, Daniel," I replied, my voice steady enough to be recorded for the transcript. "And you made the mistake of thinking I was your prey. I’m just an accountant. I merely balanced the books."
Vivian, watching from the corner, looked aged by decades. Her mansion, her social standing, and her secret influence were all being systematically liquidated by the state to pay back the victims of the Ponzi scheme. The power she had wielded over me now felt small, pathetic, and entirely toothless.
