Three days later, the rain poured heavily over downtown Dallas, washing the city streets in grey sheets of water. Inside Arthur’s corner office on the fortieth floor of the Sterling Tower, three senior attorneys sat around a dark mahogany conference table covered in thick financial folders and bank ledgers. Arthur stood at the floor-to-ceiling glass window, watching the rain hit the glass while holding a steaming cup of dark coffee.
David Vance tapped his pen against a thick stack of printed bank statements, looking up at Arthur with a grave expression on his face.
David: Arthur, you need to see this. We ran the forensic audit on the Sterling Family Foundation accounts like you asked.
Arthur: What did you find, David?
David: Victoria wasn't just mad about your new marriage, Arthur. She pushed Cora because she was terrified you were going to sign the new trust papers that afternoon. If you signed those papers, the annual audit would have triggered automatically.
Arthur turned around slowly, his eyes narrowing as he walked toward the mahogany table.
Arthur: Explain that to me clearly.
David: Over the last eighteen months, Victoria transferred over four million dollars out of the charity trust into off-shore accounts in the Cayman Islands. She used fake invoices from a shell company registered in Nevada.
Arthur slammed his coffee mug down on the wooden surface, spilling black coffee onto the corner of the paper stack. The truth was finally coming out into the open, sharp and undeniable.
Arthur: She stole from her own mother's memorial foundation?
David: Yes. And when Cora began helping you organize the estate documents last month, Cora found an accounting error in the foundation log. Victoria thought Cora was about to expose her to you.
Arthur: Cora never said a word to me because she didn't want to break my heart. She was trying to verify the numbers herself before showing me.
David: That shove on the stairs wasn't just a fit of temper, Arthur. It was a calculated attempt to stop Cora from bringing those documents to the trust office that morning.
Arthur sat down in his leather armchair, staring at the fraudulent signatures written in Victoria’s distinct cursive handwriting across the stolen checks. The anger inside him burned hot, but his mind remained crystal clear and cold as ice. He reached across the table and picked up his pen, signing three separate legal declarations without hesitation.
Arthur: File the civil lawsuit for total fraud and breach of fiduciary duty immediately. Strip her name off every family deed, remove her from the trust completely, and send these financial records directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
David: She’s your daughter, Arthur. If the FBI gets involved, she could face up to fifteen years in federal prison.
Arthur: She made her choice when she shoved a pregnant woman down a flight of marble stairs. She isn't my daughter anymore; she's a criminal who needs to be held accountable.