Chapter 6 - The Full Audit
While the Peterson elders panicked in private, the legal machine Victoria and I had set in motion was picking up unstoppable momentum.
By Tuesday of the following week, the full audit of our marital finances—ordered by the court as part of the emergency asset-freezing injunction—uncovered something far worse than simple financial diversion.
Victoria called me into her office with a stack of forensic accounting reports that looked like a thriller novel.
“Chloe, you might want to sit down for this,” Victoria said, sliding a document across the desk. “We knew Mark was funneling money to Megan’s boutique. But forensic accounting just tracked where that money actually originated.”
I scanned the numbers. “It came from my venture capital dividends.”
“Not just dividends,” Victoria corrected grimly. “Mark forged your digital signature on three separate corporate withdrawal authorizations over the past eighteen months. He took four hundred thousand dollars out of your personal pre-marital trust fund—money legally protected by your prenup—and funneled it into a shell company controlled by Megan and Frank to bail out their failing real estate investments.”
Forgery. Grand larceny. Financial fraud.
My stomach plummeted, not out of fear, but out of sheer, blinding betrayal. Seven years of marriage, seven years of building a life together, and he hadn't just been a passive bystander to his family's abuse; he had been an active accomplice stealing from my future to feed their vanity.
“Is this criminal?” I asked, my voice dangerously calm.
“It’s very criminal,” Victoria said, a shark-like smile spreading across her lips. “Wire fraud, forgery, and grand theft. In the state of Illinois, white-collar crimes involving forged pre-marital assets carry mandatory prison time, unless...”
“Unless what?”
“Unless he signs a total, unconditional relinquishment of all marital property, waives all spousal support, agrees to a zero-visitation custody arrangement for himself until court-mandated psychological evaluations are completed, and signs over every single share of any joint asset he ever thought he owned.”
I stood up, walking over to the glass wall of the office and looking out over the Chicago skyline.
The sun was shining brightly, reflecting off the steel and glass of the city where I had built my empire from scratch. I thought about Lily’s face on Thanksgiving—the red handprint, the trembling lip, the quiet terror of a little girl who didn't understand why adults were so cruel.
May you like
Then I thought about Mark, crying in the lobby because his credit cards were declined.
“Draw up the papers, Victoria,” I said without turning around. “And give him exactly twenty-four hours to sign them. If he misses the deadline, I want the district attorney’s office on speed dial.”
