Chapter 6 - THE RETALIATION
Vivienne Ashford was not a woman to surrender quietly. Unlike Callum, who had crumbled into a sniveling mess the moment his financial lifeline was severed, Vivienne understood that public perception was a weapon.
On Thursday morning, the city woke up to an exclusive interview published on a prominent Chicago business blog: “Ousted Female Executive Speaks Out: Whistleblower Claims Retaliation by Vengeful Billionaire Heiress.”
In the article, Vivienne painted herself as a brilliant marketing prodigy who had discovered financial irregularities at Whitmore Strategic Group. She claimed that I—a paranoid, reclusive wife—had weaponized private capital to purge her from the firm and scapegoat Callum to cover up my own tax evasions.
It was an audacious, desperate gamble. She knew the public loved a corporate catfight narrative.
My phone rang continuously for two hours. PR firms offered their crisis management packages; tabloids requested comments.
I sat in my study in Lake Forest, sipping Earl Grey tea, with Everett on speakerphone.
“She’s attempting to force a nuisance settlement,” Everett observed dryly. “She knows the legal fees to fight defamation are high, and she’s hoping you’ll pay her five million to shut up and sign an NDA.”
“She thinks I play defense,” I remarked calmly. “She forgets that before I retired from Monroe Advisory, I spent six years handling corporate risk mitigation for private equity firms. Call Julian Vance at Vance Media.”
“Marcus Vance’s brother?”
“The very same. And tell him I have the complete digital ledger of Ashford Communications. Including the text messages Callum forwarded to my personal backup server when he synced his corporate phone to the cloud four years ago.”
Ten minutes later, the counter-strike was prepared.
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The text messages were devastating. They showed Vivienne actively coaching Callum on how to funnel money out of the corporate escrow accounts into her shell company, explicitly stating: “Once the restructuring goes through, Zariah will have no leverage. We’ll force her out of the estate and leave her holding the unsecured debt.”
It wasn't just proof of an affair. It was documented evidence of criminal conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
