“And the AI technology?” Elena asked, flipping through the file. “The ‘Sterling Neural Network’ he’s so proud of?”
“Stolen,” Arthur confirmed. “From a researcher named Dr. Caldwell. He bankrupted her lab and took the intellectual property.”
Cold fury settled in Elena’s stomach.
Marcus wasn’t just a terrible husband.
He was a fraud. A criminal wrapped in an Armani suit.
“The signing ceremony is Friday at Obsidian Tower,” Elena said. “He wants me there to sign a final NDA—waiving my marital rights to company shares in exchange for the fifty thousand.”
“Then we’ll go,” Arthur said, sipping his black coffee. “But you won’t go as the ex-wife.”
The days leading up to Friday became a blur of shadow games.
Elena contacted Maggie, her law school roommate and a shark in forensic accounting. Together they mapped the labyrinth of Marcus’s fraud.
They found emails where he mocked the very board members he manipulated.
They found bank transfers to his mistress, Jessica, labeled “Consulting Fees.”
Thursday night Marcus texted Elena:
Make sure you dress appropriately tomorrow. Try not to look like a charity case. The President of Helios is very particular.
Elena stared at the screen.