After 144 hours away with another woman, he finally remembered his pregnant wife. His shaken assistant told him, “Sir, your wife had a serious medical emergency and lost the baby. She has already signed the divorce papers and left.”
He rushed into the boardroom without knocking.
I was already seated at the far end of the table, dressed in black, my hospital bracelet still around my wrist.
He stared at me.
“Claire, we need to talk privately.”
“No,” I said.
“You wanted privacy for six days.
Now we’ll use witnesses.”
Celeste hovered behind him,
suddenly far less confident without an audience.
I pushed a folder across the table.
Inside were hotel invoices, private-jet upgrades, jewelry charges, and consulting payments routed through a shell company called CMR Strategic.
Celeste’s initials.
Adrian’s face tightened.
“You went through my accounts?”
“Our auditors reviewed company accounts,
” I replied.
“You charged personal expenses to shareholders.”
Celeste stepped forward.
“That is ridiculous.
Those were legitimate business expenses.”
Our CFO opened a second file.
“No,” he said.
“They were not.”
Over eighteen months, Celeste had approved $680,000 in fabricated media retainers to her own LLC.
