Chapter 4 - The Forensics of Betrayal
While Dr. Harris finished dressing my wounds with medical-grade silicone bandages and administered an intravenous pain blocker, a team of six forensic accountants from Hale Global Risk Management set up shop in the Carlye's private dining room.
I sat in an oversized cashmere robe, the dull ache in my back now reduced to a manageable, steady thrum. My father sat beside me, his large, weathered hand resting protectively over mine.
The head of the forensic team, a razor-sharp woman named Sarah Lin, turned her laptop toward us.
"Clara, Mr. Hale," Sarah began, tapping a key. "Daniel was far more reckless than we initially estimated. Over the past twenty-four months, he siphoned sixty-two million dollars from the subsidiaries your father placed under his management. But he didn't just spend it on penthouses and diamond bracelets for Miss Sterling."
"Where did the money go?" my father asked.
"He attempted to set up his own sovereign hedge fund in Grand Cayman," Sarah explained. "He wanted to step out from Alexander Hale's shadow and prove he was a financial genius in his own right. But he's an idiot. He entrusted forty million of that stolen capital to a high-yield speculative vehicle controlled by a shell company."
Sarah pulled up another corporate registry. A name flashed across the screen.
I narrowed my eyes. "The Sterling Syndicate."
"Precisely," Sarah said. "The fund wasn't a blind trust. It was owned entirely by Vanessa Sterling and her elder brother, Julian. Daniel thought he was laundering money for their secret future together. In reality, Vanessa and Julian were funneling his stolen funds into offshore real estate in Dubai under their names alone."
I let out a harsh, bitter laugh that caught in my throat. "He beat me bloody to impress a woman who was bleeding him dry behind his back."
"Vanessa was planning to liquidate the remaining accounts and flee to Zurich on the sixteenth of this month," Sarah added. "She had a one-way ticket booked under her maiden name. Daniel was going to take the fall for the entire financial collapse while she lived like an empress in the Swiss Alps."
My father looked at Arthur. "Is Julian Sterling in the country?"
"He was, sir," Arthur answered. "Until twenty minutes ago. Port Authority police picked him up at JFK boarding a private charter to Geneva. The Swiss accounts have already been frozen under an emergency mutual legal assistance treaty issued by the Treasury Department."
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I turned to my father. "Vanessa wanted to be a queen on Hale money. I want her to know, before she goes to trial, exactly what she's worth."
My father's lips curved into a faint, predatory smile. "Arthur. Arrange a meeting in the interrogation wing. Let my daughter introduce Miss Sterling to reality."
