Chapter 7 - The Arrest
"Vanessa! Call my lawyers!" Mark sobbed wildly, reaching his trembling hands out to the woman in the royal blue dress. "Tell them to bail me out!"
But Vanessa didn't step forward.
Driven by pure, selfish panic, Vanessa dropped the hand of the three-year-old boy and aggressively shoved her way off the stage. She sprinted toward the side exit of the ballroom, desperately trying to distance herself from the federal raid, completely abandoning the man she claimed to love and the child they shared.
Margaret shrieked from the front row, clutching her chest as her golden son was violently shoved against the stage and handcuffed by the federal agents.
The elite crowd watched in stunned silence as the disgraced hedge fund manager was dragged out of his own fortieth birthday party, his pathetic, humiliated screams echoing into the night.
Claire didn't gloat. She didn't celebrate. She simply took the microphone from her daughter's hand and set it on the stage.
She wrapped her arms tightly around Emma, pulling the brave, brilliant ten-year-old into a fiercely protective hug. They had survived the ultimate betrayal, and they had executed flawless, absolute justice.
Six months later, Mark was sentenced to fifteen years in federal prison for defrauding his investors. Vanessa was left completely bankrupt, struggling to raise her son in a tiny apartment without Mark's stolen money.
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Claire filed for a completely one-sided divorce, securing the house, her full financial independence, and sole custody of Emma. They didn't need the toxic, fake high-society life. They were the undisputed queens of their own unbreakable empire.
If you were Claire, would you have warned Mark before handing the flash drive to the FBI, or was letting him get arrested at his own party the absolute perfect revenge?
