Chapter 5 - THE FORENSIC AUDITThree weeks later.
I sat in Marcus Sterling’s office alongside a senior forensic accountant named David Cole.
The divorce proceedings were moving at lightning speed, but Ethan’s defense team was playing dirty—claiming that Ethan was entitled to fifty percent of my baking studio's valuation, alleging he had "funded" my startup years ago.
David Cole opened a thick financial binder and laid it on the desk.
"Claire," David said with a professional smile. "We finished reviewing the joint accounts and the paper trail going back five years."
"What did you find?" I asked.
"Ethan’s attorney claimed he gave you a fifty-thousand-dollar personal loan to launch your studio in 2021," David explained. "However, our audit shows that money wasn't his. It was actually drawn from an inheritance left strictly to you by your late grandmother, which Ethan secretly transferred into his own account three days before your wedding."
I gasped, gripping the edge of the table. "He stole my grandmother’s money?"
"He didn't just steal it, Claire," Marcus chimed in. "He committed wire fraud. But it gets worse for him."
David flipped to the second section of the report. "Over the last three years, Ethan has been systematically embezzling funds from a private family trust set up for his younger sister, who lives with special needs. He used over two hundred thousand dollars from her trust to pay off his personal gambling debts at the casino in Cincinnati."
My stomach turned. I knew Ethan was arrogant and insecure, but I had never realized how deeply corrupt he truly was.
"Does his sister's legal guardian know?" I asked, horrified.
"They do now," Marcus replied coldly. "And the State Prosecutor’s Office has just added three counts of Felony Embezzlement and Wire Fraud to his indictment."
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I leaned back in my chair, looking out the window at the city skyline.
Ethan had shoved me into that icy pool believing he held all the power, believing his status and his family’s arrogance would protect him forever. He hadn't just pushed his wife into the water—he had pushed his entire life over a cliff.
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