Chapter 2 - The Investigation

Two weeks earlier, Claire had discovered the truth.
She had been sitting in her office at the state attorney general's building.
The files were spread across her desk.
Payment records.
Shell companies.
Fake employees.
It had taken her nine months to connect the dots.
Nine months of quiet work.
Nine months of pretending to be nothing more than a simple accountant.
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The Bellacourt family had built their empire on fraud.
They had stolen from their employees.
They had lied to their investors.
They had hidden millions in offshore accounts.
And Evan had signed every single transfer.
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Claire stared at the documents.
Her husband.
The man she loved.
The man she was carrying a child for.
He had been lying to her their entire marriage.
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She had confronted him that night.
"Evan, I need to talk to you about something."
He had been scrolling through his phone.
"Can it wait? I'm busy."
"Evan, this is important."
"Fine. What is it?"
She had laid the documents on the table.
"What are these?"
His face had gone pale.
"I don't know."
"Evan, they have your signature on them."
"Those aren't mine."
"They are. I checked them against your other signatures. They're identical."
"Evan, what did you do?"
He had stood up abruptly.
"Stay out of it, Claire."
"Stay out of it? You're involved in a criminal enterprise."
May you like
"I said stay out of it."
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