Chapter 17 - The Choice
While the estate healed, Vanessa Reid was learning the hard way what it meant to live without a safety net woven by other people’s money.
The $750,000 had been seized in full by the federal receiver, leaving her bank accounts frozen at zero. The high-end boutique in Manhattan had successfully sued her for the value of the damaged emerald jewelry and the stolen ivory gown—which the courts classified as damaged property beyond repair, given that the secret lining had been ripped open during the wedding exposure.
Vanessa had been forced to give up her chic studio apartment in Queens and move back into a cramped, noisy sublet above a dry cleaner in Astoria.
One Saturday afternoon, her phone buzzed with an unknown number.
She picked it up, her heart leaping with a desperate, foolish hope that perhaps Evelyn had found a loophole, perhaps some hidden trust fund was waiting to rescue her.
"Hello?" she breathed, her voice trembling.
May you like
"Miss Reid?" a flat, bureaucratic voice asked. "This is the clerk of the municipal civil court. We are following up on your compliance hearing regarding the restitution judgment filed by Maison de l'Ombre."
Vanessa closed her eyes, the phone slipping from her fingers to clatter against the linoleum floor. There was no rescue coming. There was only the weight of her own choices, settling around her like cheap, unraveled thread.
