Chapter 7
NexoCloud collapsed in twelve days.
Not because I made it collapse.
Because sunlight did.
Once Vanguard withdrew, other investors looked closer.
Then employees talked.
Then customers left.
Then the vendor fraud came out.
Jonathan called it sabotage.
Priya called it math.
I called it consequences.
Still, I did not feel victorious.
I sat alone in my penthouse, staring at the wedding photo the photographer had sent automatically.
Jonathan smiling.
Me glowing.
Florence crying fake tears in the front row.
I deleted it.
Then restored it.
Then saved it in a folder named Evidence.
Healing is not elegant.
Detective Ortiz called on a rainy Thursday.
“We found another name tied to the forged loan.”
“Who?”
“Harold Miller.”
Jonathan’s father.
The quiet one.
The man who barely spoke at the wedding.
The man I had thought was weak but harmless.
“He notarized the documents,” Ortiz said.
“He’s a notary?”
“Suspended. Five years ago.”
My stomach turned.
“Why suspended?”
“Forgery complaints from three former daughters-in-law.”
I stood.
“Three?”
Jonathan had told me he had one serious ex.
A woman named Beth who “couldn’t handle his ambition.”
Ortiz continued.
“We’re trying to locate them.”
I already knew where to start.
I searched old court records under Miller.
Bethany Cole.
Married to Jonathan for fourteen months.
Filed for divorce.
Then withdrew.
Then disappeared from public records.
Another name appeared.
Rachel Stein.
Engagement ended.
Restraining order sealed.
Then a third.
Maya Brooks.
Civil suit dismissed after settlement.
I whispered, “They practiced.”
May you like
Diana’s voice came through my speaker.
“Yes. And you may not have been the first bucket.”
