Chapter 4 - Secrets in the Foundation
The following weeks were a blur of late nights and digital detective work. I had long suspected that Connor’s rapid rise in the industry wasn't just talent—it was corner-cutting.
While working on the final permits for the project, I cross-referenced his past filings. It started as a hunch, but the deeper I dug, the clearer the picture became. I found discrepancies in the escrow accounts of his previous three projects. He hadn't just been "managing" his money; he had been siphoning client funds to cover his personal lifestyle—the expensive cars, the jewelry for Melinda, the lavish lifestyle they projected on social media.
The evidence was damning. It wasn't just a mistake; it was felony-level financial mismanagement.
I was sitting in my study at midnight when my phone pinged. An anonymous message from a source I’d been cultivating for months—an old assistant of Connor's who had been fired—sent over the missing wire transfer records.
My heart hammered in my chest. This wasn't just leverage; it was the end of the "victory lap."
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I spent the next three days organizing the data into a clean, professional dossier. I wasn't going to leak it to the press—that was too messy. I was going to hand it over to the Board of the Horizon project, who had a zero-tolerance policy for ethical breaches.
As I compiled the files, I caught my reflection in the window. I didn't look like the woman who had cried in the bathroom a year ago. I looked sharp, focused, and completely indifferent to Connor’s inevitable fall. The game had changed, and for the first time since the divorce, I was the one holding all the cards.
