Chapter 36
Chapter 36: The Final Account
By the summer of 2029, Robert Davis passed away in the prison hospital due to congestive heart failure. Because his estate had been completely liquidated by the federal government to satisfy the IRS liens and the restitution judgments, there was literally nothing left of the "Davis Construction" empire.
The local newspaper ran a tiny, three-line obituary on the back page. A man who had once been a prominent, arrogant figure in the city’s business elite disappeared with less than a whisper.
Marcus Thorne called me into his office for one final piece of business. He handed me a certified legal document from the Virginia Department of Corrections.
"This is the final accounting of the restitution fund, Claire," Marcus said, removing his glasses. "Every single dollar stolen from Anna’s trust, plus the maximum legal interest, plus the punitive damages from the defamation suits, has been recovered and permanently deposited into Anna’s primary account. The file is officially closed."
I looked at the document. The final balance was well over one hundred thousand dollars—far more than the original seventy thousand they had stolen.
"We did it, Marcus," I said, a wave of exhaustion and victory washing over me.
May you like
"No, Claire," Marcus corrected me, leaning back in his leather chair with a respectful nod. "You did it. Most people break when their family turns on them like a pack of wolves. You didn't just survive the ambush; you out-calculated them at every turn. It was an honor to be your attorney."
As I walked out of his office into the bright afternoon sun, I felt a deep, profound stillness. The war that had begun with a bounced check at a university bursar’s office was finally, completely over.
