Elena nodded slowly. “Excellent. Your corroborating statement acknowledging the assault will be extremely useful to the prosecution.”
Paige’s face fell as the legal reality of what she had just confessed dawned on her. She had just publicly admitted to witnessing a crime and finding it humorous.
“Mom, should I call the firm?” Grant stammered, looking frantically around the room.
“Shut your mouth, Grant!” Judith screamed at him.
I stepped up, delivering the final, fatal blow.
“Before we leave, Judith, you should be aware that I spent the week conducting a preliminary audit of the foundation’s backend database. Paige was kind enough to provide me with full administrative access.”
Paige’s clipboard hit the marble floor with a loud clatter.
I pointed toward the lobby doors. “The donor database confirms three hundred and forty thousand dollars in cleared receipts this fiscal year. Your glowing LED board in the lobby proudly advertises two hundred and eighty thousand. A sixty-thousand-dollar gap.” I paused, letting the math sink into the minds of the wealthy donors surrounding us.
“I have already compiled a comprehensive dossier detailing the shell disbursements routed to Lakewood Event Florals and Heritage AV Solutions—two phantom corporations registered to empty P.O. boxes and abandoned dry cleaners. The file is secure.”
Judith broke. It wasn’t a cinematic faint. It was the ugly, visceral collapse of a tyrant whose fortress had been breached. She began to physically shake, pointing a violently trembling finger at my mother.
“You… you bred a parasite! She is a vindictive, filthy little peasant who clawed her way into my family’s vault to destroy everything Harold built!”
“Mom, stop talking!” Grant yelled, finally realizing the legal peril they were drowning in.
“Your son struck my daughter,” Elena repeated, her voice a monotone drone cutting through Judith’s hysteria. “Everything else is merely a conversation for the State Attorney General.”
From Table 47, a man in a gray sport coat stepped forward. He reached into his breast pocket and produced a gold badge.
