“He slapped his pregnant wife for his mistress, then her three brothers walked in and revealed who she really was.”

“Never,” Julian said with a dry grin. “We dress much better.”

While peace settled over the mountains of Asheville, eighty miles east in Charlotte, the shockwaves of the Walker scandal still rippled through the society pages of the Charlotte Observer.

Lauren Pierce sat in a sterile attorney-client consultation booth at the Mecklenburg County Jail, staring at her own reflection in the smudged wire-mesh window. Her designer wardrobe was gone, replaced by a standard-issue orange jumpsuit that smelled of institutional bleach and harsh detergent. Her hair, usually styled to perfection, hung limp and unwashed around her face.

The heavy steel door clicked open, and her defense attorney—an exhausted public defender assigned to her case after her private retainer dried up—stepped inside, dropping a thick manila folder onto the metal table.

“Ms. Pierce, your plea offer from the US Attorney’s office just came across my desk,” the lawyer said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

Lauren looked up, her eyes wide and bloodshot. “What are the terms? Can we fight the wire fraud charges? Ethan said—”

“Ethan is in solitary confinement facing twelve counts of conspiracy and corporate embezzlement,” the lawyer cut in bluntly. “And your signature is on every single offshore transfer receipt. The prosecution is offering four years at a federal minimum-security camp in West Virginia if you plead guilty to aiding and abetting corporate fraud. If you take this to trial against the forensic evidence Vance Holdings handed the FBI? You’re looking at fifteen.”

Lauren felt the floor drop out from under her. “Vance Holdings… they’re still pressing this? Why? I was just a consultant! Ethan was the CEO!”

“You helped him conceal three point six million dollars in illicit kickbacks, and you publicly humiliated the sister of the majority stakeholder of half the commercial real estate in the Southeast,” the lawyer said, shaking his head in disbelief. “From what I understand, the Vance family doesn’t forgive, and they certainly don’t forget.”

Lauren slumped forward in her metal chair, the bitter taste of ruin finally settling on her tongue. The cold ambition that had driven her to tear down another woman’s marriage had delivered her straight into a concrete box.

Disclaimer: This story is fictional and created for entertainment purposes only.
Any names, characters, places, or events are fictitious or used fictitiously.
No real person or organization is intended to be portrayed.