Chapter 5 - The Fall from Grace
The news of Adrian’s public humiliation and professional destruction dominated every social column and financial blog by the next morning.
The story was irresistible: a wealthy, arrogant heir leaves his brilliant fiancée at the altar for his gold-digging ex, only to discover that his fiancée held the keys to his entire fortune.
By noon on Tuesday, Adrian and his mother were sitting in the living room of their family mansion in the city’s most exclusive neighborhood.
Or rather, what used to be their family mansion.
Two men in suits stood near the marble entryway, taking inventory of the high-end artwork hanging on the walls.
“What are you doing with those paintings?!” Celeste shrieked, running over to confront them. “Those belong to the Vale estate! They’ve been in our family for two generations!”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Vale,” one of the auditors replied, holding a clipboard. “This property and its contents were pledged as personal collateral for Valecrest’s secondary credit lines. Since those lines have been defaulted on due to Mr. Vale's termination, the bank has initiated asset seizure procedures.”
Adrian sat on a velvet sofa, staring blankly at his phone.
He had tried calling Vanessa forty times since yesterday. Every single call went straight to voicemail. When he drove to her apartment building earlier that morning, the doorman informed him that Miss Miller had checked out and caught a flight back to London late last night.
She had abandoned him the moment the money dried up.
“Adrian!” Celeste yelled, rushing over and grabbing his shoulders. “Do something! Call your friends! Call the mayor! Call anyone!”
“Mom... nobody is answering my calls,” Adrian said, his voice sounding hollow and small. “Every investor I talked to hung up on me. My bank accounts are frozen. The lease on my sports car was revoked this morning.”
Just then, the front doorbell rang.
Celeste opened it, hoping against hope it was a legal reprieve.
Instead, two uniformed officers stood on the porch alongside Detective Miller from the state financial crimes division.
“Adrian Vale?” Detective Miller asked, stepping into the foyer.
Adrian stood up slowly, his hands trembling. “Yes?”
“You are under arrest for First-Degree Grand Larceny, Corporate Fraud, and Embezzlement,” Detective Miller announced calmly, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his belt.
Celeste let out a blood-curdling scream. “No! You can’t do this! He’s a Vale! His father built this city!”
“His father built a legacy, ma'am,” Detective Miller replied as the handcuffs clicked shut around Adrian’s wrists. “Your son embezzled four million dollars from it.”
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As Adrian was marched down his own driveway toward the police cruiser, neighbors stood on their lawns, taking videos with their phones.
Adrian looked around in sheer terror, realizing that the golden world he had taken for granted his entire life had completely collapsed in less than forty-eight hours.
