Chapter 2 - The Ghosts at the Breakfast Table
The smirk on Daniel’s face froze, disintegrating into a mask of pure terror. The color drained from his skin so fast he looked like a corpse wrapped in expensive silk.
Sitting at our marble breakfast table were not his golf buddies or his business partners.
On the left sat Arthur Vance, the senior managing partner of Keller & Voss—the legendary forensic auditing firm that Daniel’s company, Cole Logistics, relied on to satisfy its terrified institutional investors. Arthur didn’t look up; he was calmly adjusting his glasses, reading through a stack of documents that looked three inches thick.
On the right sat Detective Marcus Thorne of the Financial Crimes Division, his badge resting casually next to his coffee cup.
And in the middle, looking completely out of place in her flashy rhinestone heels and heavy vanilla perfume, was Celeste Vale. Daniel’s mistress. She wasn't smiling. Her mascara was smudged, and she was staring at the table as if it were a chopping block.
"What... what is this?" Daniel stammered, his voice cracking. He took a step backward, his hand instinctively going to the collar of his silk robe. "Victoria, what did you do?"
I stood by the stove, calmly turning off the burner beneath the rosemary beef short ribs. The aroma was rich, intoxicating, and completely suffocating for everyone else in the room. I walked over, my face still bearing the dark bruise Daniel had given me the night before. I didn't hide it with makeup. I wanted every person in that room to see exactly what he was.
"I didn't do anything, Daniel," I said, my voice smooth and rhythmic. "I just invited a few interested parties over for breakfast. You love short ribs, remember? I thought we should celebrate."
"Celebrate what?" Daniel hissed, trying to regain his footing, though his eyes darted frantically toward the sliding glass doors.
"Celebrate the conclusion of the Keller & Voss internal audit," Arthur Vance finally spoke, his deep baritone cutting through the tension. He closed the heavy folder with a sharp thud. "Daniel, when your board of directors hired our firm six months ago to investigate the missing liquidity in your offshore operational funds, they didn't know your wife was the primary auditor assigned to the case. And they certainly didn't know you were using our firm's name to cover your tracks."
Daniel’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. He looked at me, his eyes wide with a mixture of shock and fury. "You... you were auditing me?"
"For six months, Daniel," I smiled, pulling out the fourth chair at the table and sitting down. "You thought I quit Keller & Voss because I wanted to be a housewife. I took a sabbatical from the corporate office so I could work from home—your home. Every time you left your laptop open, every time you bragged about a new 'marketing consultant' contract, I was logging it directly into the secure federal server."
"You lying bitch," Daniel growled, stepping forward, his fist clenching.
Detective Thorne immediately stood up, his hand resting firmly on his holster. "Mr. Cole, I suggest you take a seat and keep your hands where I can see them. Any aggressive movement toward your wife will result in an immediate physical arrest right here in your kitchen."
Daniel froze. His gaze drifted to Celeste, who finally looked up, her eyes filled with tears.
"Daniel, they know," Celeste sobbed, her voice trembling. "They know about the shell company. They know about the three-million-dollar wire transfer into my account last Tuesday. They showed up at my apartment at six this morning with a asset freeze warrant. I didn't have a choice! I had to tell them!"
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"Celeste, shut up!" Daniel yelled, his face turning a dark, dangerous crimson. "Don't say a word without our lawyers!"
"Your lawyers won't save you from this, Daniel," I said, pushing a plate of short ribs toward him. "Eat up. You’re going to need your energy for what comes next."
