Inside were reports, photographs, and invoices from a private investigator. Mark hadn’t just abandoned Anna; he had paid a man two hundred dollars a day to follow her from soup kitchen to shelter, ensuring she never got a foothold. Whenever she got a job interview, an anonymous phone call would be made to the employer, warning them she was a drug addict.
They hadn’t just stolen her money. They had systematically hunted her weakness to ensure she could never fight back.
By noon, Mark was being led out the front door, a jacket draped over his handcuffed wrists.
Vanessa was being escorted out right behind him. She was crying so hysterically that her heavy makeup had run down her neck in dark, muddy streaks.
“Mark made me do it!” she wailed to the officers. “I didn’t want to! He lied to me!”
Mark stopped in the doorway, turned back to look at her, and laughed bitterly. “You spent every damn dollar, you parasite.”
They were already destroying each other before the elevator doors even closed.
As the last of the police cleared out, I stood alone in the center of the ruined penthouse. Anna had taken Emma downstairs to the truck, far away from the carnage.
I looked at the panoramic view of the city. The storm had broken, and pale sunlight was cutting through the clouds, illuminating the skyline. The job was done.
My phone buzzed. It was Anna.
“Dad,” her voice came through the speaker, breathless. “We’re in the truck. But… I was thinking. The bank accounts the police showed us… they only had about fifty thousand dollars in them. The penthouse is mortgaged. Where is the rest of the half-million?”
I stared out the window, my reflection ghosting over the glass. Mark had bragged about bleeding us dry. He was too greedy to just spend it all on cars. He had tucked it away.
“Take Emma home, sweetheart,” I said, my voice hardening. “Lock the doors. Order a pizza.”
“Dad? Where are you going?”
I turned back to the mahogany desk where the laptop had been. “Mark thinks he’s hidden a nest egg in offshore accounts. He thinks he can wait out a prison sentence and come home to a fortune.” I picked up my briefcase. “I’m going to find his money, Anna. I’m going to burn his safety net to the ground.”
