Chapter 5 - The Fall of the House of Vale
The legal avalanche that followed was swift, brutal, and completely televised.
Adrian Vale’s desperate attempts to hire a top-tier defense team failed before they even began; every major firm in the city refused to take his case the moment they realized they would be going up against the bottomless resources of the Sterling family.
By Friday afternoon, the federal prosecutor's office announced a twenty-four-count indictment against Adrian for corporate embezzlement, bank fraud, and grand larceny. The local news networks ran the security footage of Adrian being led out of his club in handcuffs on a loop.
Inside the federal detention center, Adrian sat in the visiting room, his hair disheveled, his navy suit wrinkled and stained. The plexiglass divider separated him from his mother, who was sobbing uncontrollably.
"How did this happen, Adrian?" she wailed. "We were supposed to be set for life! The babies... can't you ask Evelyn to drop the charges for the sake of the children?"
"Evelyn doesn't exist anymore," Adrian whispered hoarsely, his eyes staring blankly at the cold metal table. "The woman I threw out of that hospital room... she was a shadow. The person I’m fighting now is a monster. She’s her father's daughter."
The door behind him opened, and Marcus Vance walked in, carrying a single piece of paper. He slid it through the slot at the bottom of the plexiglass.
"What's this?" Adrian asked, his voice trembling.
"The final divorce decree and total termination of your parental rights," Marcus said flatly. "In exchange for your signature, the Sterling family will agree not to pursue the maximum sentencing guidelines on the corporate fraud charges. You'll serve seven years instead of twenty."
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Adrian looked at the paper. The man who had stood by my hospital bed and told me I was too ugly, too weak, and too broken to ever be wanted was now completely dependent on my mercy to breathe fresh air before his fifties.
With a shaking hand, he picked up the pen and signed his name, erasing himself from our lives forever.
