Chapter 6 - The Shattered Alliance
The scandal broke at dawn.
By 7:00 AM, the front page of the Chicago Tribune carried a massive headline: MORETTI GLOBAL COO OUSTED AMID FRAUD ALLEGATIONS; BILLION-DOLLAR MERGER IN JEOPARDY.
I sat in my dining room, holding a mug of coffee, reading the news on my tablet. Beside the article was a photo of Marcus Vance being escorted out of Moretti tower by corporate security officers.
My phone rang. It was Arthur.
"Nia," Arthur said, his tone filled with genuine disbelief. "Luca did it. He fired Marcus Vance, froze his assets, and handed the forged medical files directly to the federal prosecutor's office."
I stared at the tablet screen. "He actually burned his own COO to validate my story?"
"It gets bigger," Arthur continued. "The Shaw family is in a complete panic. Evelyn Shaw’s father just held a press conference announcing that if Luca doesn't reinstate the merger terms by noon, they are filing for a formal separation on Evelyn’s behalf."
Before I could digest the news, my front doorbell rang.
I walked to the door and looked through the peephole. Standing on the porch was Evelyn Shaw.
She wasn't wearing her usual polished, magazine-ready outfits. She wore a simple trench coat over dark pants, her eyes rimmed with red, her posture rigid with desperation and anger.
I opened the door, standing in the doorway without inviting her in. "Evelyn."
"Can I come in, Nia?" her voice was clipped, stripped of her usual aristocratic polish. "Please."
I stepped aside, allowing her to enter the foyer. She looked around the warm, sunlit brownstone—the family photos on the wall, the children's art projects taped to the refrigerator—with an expression of deep, bitter envy.
"He's destroying everything," Evelyn said, turning to face me, her hands clasped tightly around her leather purse. "His company, his reputation, my family's fortune... he's throwing it all into a bonfire because of those children."
"He's doing it because he was lied to, Evelyn," I corrected her gently. "Just like I was."
"Do you think I didn't know?" Evelyn laughed bitterly, a sad, hollow sound. "I knew Luca didn't love me the way he loved you. For five years, I lived with a man who was physically present but emotionally a ghost. He built an empire, bought me diamonds, took me to galas... but whenever he looked at me, I knew he was wishing I was someone else."
I felt a sudden, unexpected pang of sympathy for her. She had been a pawn in Marcus Vance’s corporate chess game just as much as I had been.
"I'm sorry, Evelyn," I said softly.
"Don't pity me," she snapped, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. "I’m a Shaw. I’ll survive the divorce. But I came here to tell you something you need to know. Marcus Vance isn't going down quietly."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Marcus lost forty million dollars this morning," Evelyn said, leaning closer, her voice dropping into a hushed, urgent tone. "He knows he’s going to prison. Last night, my father got a call from him. Marcus was frantic. He said if Luca didn't drop the charges, he was going to release information that would ruin you and the children. He hired a private investigator to dig into your life over the last five years."
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My blood ran cold. "Dig into my life?"
"He knows where the twins go to school, Nia," Evelyn warned, her eyes serious. "He knows their schedule. Luca is busy fighting the board right now, but you need to protect your kids. Marcus is desperate—and desperate men do terrible things."
