Chapter 26 - The Unraveling of Jessica
"Cut the dramatics, David," Kevin said coldly, not bothering to offer a greeting. "Why are you here? Did Jessica clean out your accounts and leave you with the mortgage on that overpriced suburban palace?"
David flinched as if he had been struck. He buried his face in his trembling hands, letting out a ragged, desperate sigh.
"She’s gone," David whispered through his fingers. "Two weeks ago, the bank froze our primary lines of credit. Apparently, the commercial investments she had been pouring our joint savings into—backed by Marcus Sterling’s firm—were tied to some sort of fraudulent probate asset. When the federal investigators started sniffing around Sterling & Vance, Jessica panicked. She emptied our remaining liquid accounts, transferred the house title to her cousin’s shell company, and flew to the Cayman Islands with a real estate developer she’d been seeing."
I sat quietly, stirring my tea with a silver spoon, watching the broken man before me. There was no triumph in my heart, only a profound, heavy sorrow. This was the son I had raised, the boy who used to build wooden birdhouses with his father in our backyard before ambition poisoned his soul.
"And you?" I asked softly. "What happened to your partnership at the firm?"
"Suspended," David muttered, tears finally spilling over his eyelids and tracking down his hollow cheeks. "Marcus Sterling threw me under the bus. He’s claiming I was the one who forged the probate documents for the Columbus block. He’s trying to pin the entire federal fraud charge on me to save his own skin. Mom... I’m facing twenty years in federal prison for something I didn't even know was illegal."
"You didn't know?" Kevin scoffed, leaning forward with fierce anger in his eyes. "David, you signed the paperwork! You sat at those board meetings and approved the asset liquidations because you wanted your name on the partner plaque! You traded your family, your mother, and your integrity for a corner office and a country club membership!"
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"I know!" David cried out, drawing the quiet attention of the waitress across the room. He lowered his voice, trembling violently. "I know I was a fool! I was blind, greedy, and weak. I let Jessica and Sterling twist my mind until I thought family was just a liability. But I’m paying for it now. I’ve lost everything, Mom. Please... help me."
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