Chapter 2 - The Audit and the Alias
Within two hours of leaving the hospital, I was sitting in the corner office of Marcus Vance, the most aggressive forensic corporate attorney in the state. I had known Marcus since our early days in Columbus when he helped us draft our first commercial lease. When I placed the manila envelope on his glass desk and slid over my personal digital ledger copies from the last decade, he didn't even speak for five full minutes. He just adjusted his glasses, pulled up his dual monitors, and started typing with terrifying speed.
"Laura," Marcus finally said, leaning back in his leather chair with a low whistle. "This isn't just an affair. This is an organized corporate strip-down. Your husband and his secretary didn't just open a shell company; they filed fraudulent corporate restructuring papers with the state registry six months ago. They attempted to dilute your voting shares in Crestview Developments down to zero by claiming you were 'medically incapacitated' and signing your name via a fraudulent power of attorney."
My stomach tightened into a hard, cold knot. "My medical records? How could they claim I was incapacitated?"
"They used a private notary service in a county two hours away," Marcus said, spinning his screen toward me. "Look at this stamp. The signature is a digital trace, probably lifted from an old tax return you signed back in 2020. They submitted it electronically while you were recovering from your pneumonia last winter."
The memory flashed back instantly. Last winter, I had spent four days in bed with severe bronchial pneumonia. Mark had brought me soup, checked my temperature with exaggerated tenderness, and asked me to sign a stack of 'routine tax extension documents' so he could handle the accountant's deadlines while I rested.
I had trusted him. I had trusted him for twenty-eight years.
"Can we freeze the accounts?" I asked, my voice remarkably steady, though my heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
"We can do better than that," Marcus said, a predatory smile touching the corners of his mouth. "Because they used interstate wire transfers to fund the Destin condo and a portfolio of commercial real estate under the Altos Group umbrella, this crossed the threshold from a civil domestic dispute into federal wire fraud and identity theft. I’ve already contacted an investigator at the financial crimes division. But Laura... Mark is holding a board meeting at Crestview headquarters in two hours to vote on the Q3 acquisition of the Henderson commercial park. If you want to stop him, you need to walk into that boardroom yourself."
May you like
I stood up, buttoned my wool coat, and picked up my leather briefcase—the same briefcase my father had given me when we incorporated the business.
"Let's go," I said. "It's time to show my husband who built this company."
