Chapter 2 - The Broadcast

The media circus that followed the arrests at Grand Horizon was unprecedented. Christopher and Brenda were perp-walked out of the glass skyscraper in front of a dozen news crews. The image of Christopher, once the golden boy of Beverly Hills corporate society, sweating in handcuffs, became the front page of every major newspaper in the country.

Within forty-eight hours, their worlds were systematically dismantled.

Luke and I sat in the office of my powerhouse divorce attorney, a shark named Evelyn Vance (no relation to Brenda, much to Evelyn’s disgust).

"He's asking for bail," Evelyn said, adjusting her glasses as she read the latest filing from Christopher's defense team. "His lawyers are trying to unfreeze the joint accounts to pay for his defense and post the ten-million-dollar bond."

I took a sip of my coffee, feeling more awake than I had in years. "Deny it. All the joint accounts contain funds comingled with the stolen corporate money. The SEC has already flagged them."

Luke tapped his tablet. "Actually, I preemptively moved all of Mom's personal, pre-marital assets into a blind trust in Delaware last month. The only money left in the joint accounts is the money Christopher stole. The feds have already seized it. He has exactly zero dollars to his name."

Evelyn looked at my eighteen-year-old son with a mixture of awe and slight terror. "Remind me never to cross you, Luke."

Christopher was denied bail. He was deemed a flight risk due to the offshore accounts in the Caymans. He was remanded to the county jail, trading his custom Italian suits for an orange jumpsuit.

Brenda, true to her nature, immediately turned state's evidence. She offered to testify against Christopher, claiming he was the mastermind of the embezzlement and that he had coerced her into poisoning me. Christopher’s lawyers fired back, claiming Brenda was a manipulative gold-digger who acted alone regarding the drugs.

They were trapped in a prisoner's dilemma, and both of them chose to burn the other alive.

One week later, I received a request for a visitor at the county jail. It was Christopher.

I didn't go. Instead, I sent a courier to deliver a single black envelope to him.

Inside the envelope was the finalized divorce decree, signed by a judge who had expedited the process due to the criminal circumstances. The decree stripped him of all marital assets, granted me full custody of Luke, and reinstated my maiden name.