Chapter 6 - The Corporate Fallout
If the criminal charges were the physical blow that shattered Ethan’s life, the corporate fallout was the financial execution.
Ethan worked as a senior vice president at Sterling & Vance Capital—ironically, a mid-tier investment firm where his father held significant influence on the board. Ethan had always used his family’s corporate connections as a shield, believing his position was untouchable no matter how reckless his personal behavior became.
He didn't account for modern corporate governance, zero-tolerance policies regarding violent crime, and, most importantly, me.
As a senior financial analyst at a rival, premier institutional firm downtown, my professional network was vast and unimpeachable. Furthermore, Dr. Lin’s official medical report, paired with the public arrest record for felony aggravated domestic battery, triggered an immediate mandatory ethics review by Ethan’s firm.
Two days after his arrest, while Ethan was sitting in a holding cell awaiting his formal arraignment, the board of directors held an emergency closed-door session.
The primary presentation delivered to the board wasn't just a news clipping of his arrest; it was a comprehensive compliance dossier compiled by my firm’s legal team, detailing not only the domestic violence charges but also a series of questionable, high-risk leveraged trades Ethan had authorized over the previous two quarters—trades designed to cover up personal financial losses he had hidden from the audit committee.
By noon, the decision was unanimous.
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Ethan was stripped of his title, terminated for gross moral turpitude and violation of corporate ethics, and barred from the financial sector pending criminal disposition. His father, Richard, attempted to lobby the board to protect his son, only to find himself facing an internal ethics investigation of his own for covering up corporate compliance violations.
The empire they had built on intimidation, arrogance, and unchecked male privilege was crumbling into dust, brick by brick.
