Chapter 3 - The Financial Extraction
By 2:00 PM that afternoon, the living room had been converted into a tactical operations base. My older brother, Lucas—a senior partner at one of the city’s top white-collar defense firms—sat at the dining table, his laptop open, his fingers flying across the keys as he drafted the emergency asset transfer deeds.
Marvin sat in the corner, a glass of water shaking in his hand, completely forbidden from speaking unless spoken to. His mother had been forced into the opposite chair, her perfect posture gone, her face looking ten years older under the harsh light of the dining room chandelier.
"The asset allocation is straightforward," Lucas explained, turning the laptop screen toward Camryn. "You will sign over the title of the lakeside property in Austin and the commercial commercial suite on 4th Street directly back to the municipal sports foundation as restitution for the 'unintentional accounting errors' your firm committed. This completely covers the three hundred thousand dollar deficit before the state comptroller flags the file next week."
"That leaves me with nothing," Camryn whispered, her eyes red-rimmed with an ugly, bitter fury. "I spent four years securing those assets. That was my retirement."
"That was public money meant for underprivileged children’s sports equipment, Camryn," I said, standing by the window with a fresh cup of tea. "You didn't secure it. You stole it. And right now, buying your way out of a federal prison sentence with your retirement fund is the cheapest deal you’re ever going to get."
Harrison Croft, Camryn’s personal attorney whom she had been allowed to call under our strict supervision, sat beside her. He looked at the evidence logs I had provided—the text messages from Camryn to Marvin, the audio recording of Marvin’s confession, and the ironclad metadata linking her private accounts to the city payroll system.
"Sign it, Camryn," Croft said, sighing deeply as he rubbed his temples. "If this goes to a grand jury, the domestic abuse conspiracy charge alone carries a mandatory five-year minimum. Combined with municipal fraud and grand larceny? You’ll spend the rest of your life in a state penitentiary. Elena has you completely cornered. Sign the papers."
Camryn’s hand trembled as she took the heavy silver pen from Lucas. She looked at me, her eyes filled with a venomous, unadulterated hatred that would have terrified me six months ago. But today, it felt like nothing more than the desperate thrashing of a dying snake.
She pressed the pen to the paper, her signature jagged and uneven as she signed away the empire of lies she had built.
May you like
"There," she spat, throwing the pen onto the table. "It’s done. You’ve ruined us. Are you happy now, you little bitch?"
"Not yet," I said, walking over to the table and picking up the signed documents, checking each line with a practiced eye. "That handles the city’s money, Camryn. Now, let’s talk about the divorce."
