Chapter 3 - Unmasking the Tokyo Lie
My private attorney,
Marcus Vance,
answered my direct line on the first ring.
“Eleanor,
I’ve already received the preliminary filings from the bank,” Marcus said,
his voice sharp and professional.
“You froze six primary accounts,
including the joint credit lines.”
“I need them completely closed,
Marcus,” I said,
leaning back in my leather chair.
“Not just frozen,
closed.”
“I also need you to hire a private investigator immediately to pull the records for The Plaza Hotel and Zao Zero Diamond Boutique.”
There was a brief pause on the line as Marcus typed rapidly on his keyboard.
“I don’t need an investigator for The Plaza,
Eleanor,” Marcus said quietly.
“I already have a contact in commercial real estate who flagged something interesting twenty minutes ago.”
“What is it?”
“David signed a four-year lease on a luxury penthouse loft in SoHo three weeks ago,” Marcus revealed.
“The lease was finalized using a corporate guarantor structure linked to your family’s investment holdings,
which he forged your signature to access.”
I gripped the edge of my desk,
my knuckles turning white.
“A penthouse in SoHo?”
“Yes,” Marcus confirmed.
“And the co-tenant listed on the residential permit is a woman named Chloe Dupont.”
The name struck me like a cold splash of water.
Chloe Dupont was David’s twenty-six-year-old marketing coordinator,
the woman he had hired eight months ago under the pretense of expanding his firm’s digital outreach.
“There was never a Tokyo assignment,
was there?” I asked,
my voice trembling slightly before returning to steel.
“No,” Marcus replied coldly.
“His firm never authorized an overseas transfer.”
“David requested a sabbatical starting this week,
claiming he needed time off for family medical reasons.”
“He planned to live in SoHo with Chloe Dupont,
using your corporate credit lines to fund their lifestyle,
while leaving his aging parents at your estate so you would be trapped taking care of them.”
I sat in silence for a long moment,
processing the sheer magnitude of his deceit.
He hadn’t just cheated on me,
he had constructed a elaborate scam to strip me of my wealth,
turn my home into an elder care facility for his family,
and live like a king ten miles away in Manhattan with his mistress.
“Marcus,” I said,
my tone dropping an octave.
“How fast can we execute an emergency eviction order for the estate?”
“Since the property is held 100% in your individual pre-marital trust,
his parents have no legal status as tenants,” Marcus explained.
“I can have a court-issued notice of unlawful detainer served to them by tomorrow morning.”
“Make it today,” I demanded.
“I want them out of my house before sunset.”
“And what about David?” Marcus asked.
May you like
“David is currently stranded at The Plaza Hotel with an unpaid bill and a diamond ring he can’t afford,” I smiled darkly.
“Let him stay right where he is.”
