Chapter 6 - The Unraveling in Paradise
Two thousand miles away, the private resort in Turks and Caicos was not quite living up to Evelyn Vance’s expectations.
The ocean was as blue as the brochures promised, but the luxury villa was currently filled with shouting, screaming, and panic.
Evelyn paced back and forth across the white marble patio of the penthouse suite, pressing her phone to her ear for the twentieth time that morning. “Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system...”
"He's still ignoring my calls!" Evelyn shrieked, throwing her phone onto the plush sofa cushions. She turned to glare at Richard, who was sitting at the patio table frantically trying to log into his online banking app using hotel Wi-Fi. "Richard, do something! Your father has locked us out of our accounts! The concierge just tried to charge my card for breakfast, and it was declined!"
Richard slammed his tablet down onto the table, his face twisted in frustrated fury. "Mom, shut up! I'm trying to figure out how to get our return charter paid for! The aviation company says our retainer was wired from a corporate account that has been frozen under a federal asset audit!"
"A federal audit?!" Evelyn gasped, clutching her pearls. "Because of Maya?!"
"Not because of Maya," a cold, sharp voice interrupted from the doorway.
They turned to see Chloe—Evelyn’s daughter—standing there with her arms crossed, looking at her mother and brother with absolute disgust. She had spent the last two hours reading the panicked emails sent to her corporate inbox by junior employees back in Boston.
"I just spoke to David Thorne in legal," Chloe said bitterly. "Dad didn't just freeze Richard's accounts. He launched a full internal forensic audit into the entire executive payroll. Marcus Thorne has already been detained by federal marshals for corporate wire fraud."
Evelyn staggered backward, her hand flying to her chest. "Fraud? Federal marshals? In our family?!"
"It's not our family anymore, Mom," Chloe snapped, tears of anger welling in her eyes. "While we were flying first-class to a beach resort to celebrate ourselves, Dad and Maya were uncovering years of financial embezzlement. Dad sent a group email to the entire board this morning detailing every single dollar Richard and Marcus stole from the company."
Richard stood up so fast his chair crashed backward onto the stone patio. "Stole?! That was my executive compensation!"
"It was theft, Richard!" Chloe shouted back. "And Dad just changed the locks on the house. When we get back to Boston—if we can even afford the flight—we don't have a home, we don't have jobs, and we don't have a dime."
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Evelyn sank slowly onto the sofa, staring blankly out at the sparkling turquoise ocean. The paradise she had planned to showcase her family's untouchable perfection had suddenly transformed into a gilded prison.
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