Chapter 4
Michael laughed once, but it came out thin.
“This is petty. You’re proving everything I said about you.”
Mari’s father pulled his phone from his coat pocket.
“Michael, the company’s financial team has already been waiting for confirmation of today’s order. Every unauthorized charge after the decree is now part of the audit.”
Michael went still.
“Audit?”
Mari looked at him.
“You thought I didn’t know.”
He swallowed.
Behind him, Vanessa took half a step away.
“You knew what?” she asked.
Michael snapped, “Stay out of it.”
But it was too late.
The performance had cracked.
A black sedan pulled up behind the SUV.
Mari’s attorney stepped out with a second folder in her hand.
Michael stared at her like she was a ghost.
The attorney walked straight to Mari and her father.
“Accounts frozen?” she asked.
Mari nodded.
“Good,” the attorney said. “Then we can serve the amended claim.”
Michael’s voice dropped.
“What amended claim?”
Mari’s attorney faced him.
“Misuse of corporate funds, fraudulent expense reporting, unauthorized access, and violation of the financial separation order entered this morning.”
Vanessa’s mouth fell open.
Michael shook his head.
“No. No, that’s insane. Those cards were given to me.”
“For business purposes,” Mari said. “Not hotels. Not jewelry. Not weekend trips with her.”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward him.
“Jewelry?”
Mari’s father looked at Vanessa’s bracelet.
The same one flashing under the Chicago sun.
Vanessa slowly covered it with her sleeve.
Michael saw the movement.
His face reddened.
“You’re all trying to humiliate me.”
Mari stared at him.
“You humiliated yourself.”
The words were not loud.
But they landed harder than shouting.
A few people on the sidewalk had stopped pretending not to listen.
Michael noticed them.
That made him angrier.
“You think freezing a few cards makes you powerful?” he hissed. “You still lost your husband.”
Mari’s eyes filled again.
But this time, the tears did not come from heartbreak.
They came from release.
“No,” she said. “I lost a thief who thought love meant access.”
The attorney handed Michael the legal packet.
He did not take it.
So she placed it on the hood of the SUV.
“The company will seek repayment,” she said. “And depending on what the forensic review confirms, this may be referred for criminal investigation.”
Vanessa stepped back again.
May you like
“Criminal?”
👉 Michael tried to call it humiliation — but the legal packet on the SUV hood proved this was only the beginning.
