Chapter 14 - The Deposition of Adrian Vale
Three weeks later,
I walked through the heavy steel doors of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Lower Manhattan.
The facility was cold,
smelling of industrial disinfectant and stale air.
I was led into a small,
windowless deposition room with cinderblock walls and a single stainless steel table bolted to the floor.
Adrian sat across the table,
wearing a bright orange prison jumpsuit,
his wrists secured to a waist chain.
His hair had been shaved short by prison staff,
his face was thin,
hollow,
and bruised from prison fights,
and the commanding charisma that had once defined him was completely gone.
Beside him sat his court-appointed defense attorney,
a visibly stressed young lawyer who looked completely out of his depth.
"Nora,"
Adrian rasped,
his voice dry and cracking as he looked up at me.
I sat down in the wooden chair opposite him,
opening my leather portfolio without making eye contact.
"We are here to record the formal asset division deposition for case number 44-709,"
I stated calmly,
nodding to the court reporter who set up the recording device on the edge of the table.
"Nora,
please,"
Adrian begged,
leaning forward as far as his chains would allow.
"You don't have to do this to me."
"I am facing thirty years in a federal penitentiary."
"They are putting me in maximum security because of the Rossi family connections."
"I will die in there,
Nora."
"You knew the risks when you forged my name,
Adrian,"
I said,
my voice flat,
devoid of pity.
"You traded fifteen years of legal protection for a few months of feeling like a crime boss again."
"It was Sloane!"
Adrian spat,
his eyes burning with bitter hatred.
"She manipulated me!"
"She was the one who suggested the Harbor Nine transfer!"
"She told me you were planning to divorce me and take half the firm!"
"She lied to me!"
I pulled a single sheet of paper from my portfolio and pushed it across the metal table toward him.
It was a bank ledger from the Cayman Islands showing Sloane Bennett's private offshore account.
"Sloane didn't lie to you about my loyalty,
Adrian,"
I said softly.
"She used your arrogance against you."
"She diverted forty million dollars of your personal funds into her private accounts over a three-year period."
"While you thought she was your obedient mistress,"
"she was actively robbing you blind."
Adrian stared at the document,
his jaw dropping in horror as he processed the numbers on the page.
"She...
she stole from me?"
he whispered,
a broken,
pitiable sound escaping his throat.
"She saw a weak man who could be easily flattered,"
I said,
standing up from the wooden chair and buttoning my suit jacket.
"And so did I."
"The only difference is,"
"she took your money,"
"and I took your empire."
Adrian stared at me in complete,
devastating realization.
He reached out with his chained hands,
his fingers brushing against the cold steel table,
as if trying to grasp a ghost that had already vanished.
"Nora..."
he sobbed,
tears finally spilling over his hollow cheeks.
"Please...
look at me..."
I turned my back on him,
walked to the heavy steel door,
May you like
and knocked twice for the guard to let me out.
I never looked back.
