Chapter 2 - The Pawn Shop Ticket
I marched out of the guest suite and found Harold sitting in his study with a cup of tea.
I placed my tablet on his mahogany desk and showed him the empty bank accounts.
Harold’s expression darkened instantly, his jaw clenching as he read the transaction details.
He picked up his phone and dialed a number I didn't recognize.
Within twenty minutes, two men in dark suits arrived at the penthouse.
Harold introduced them as his personal security and private investigation team.
I told them about the missing money and the disappearance of my grandmother's sapphire brooch.
The lead investigator, a sharp-eyed man named Marcus, immediately began tracing Vanessa’s financial footprint.
Harold poured me a glass of water and promised that we would recover every single thing they took from me.
An hour later, Marcus walked back into the study with a grim look on his face.
He had tracked the jewelry to a high-end pawn shop on the other side of the city.
Vanessa had sold the heirloom brooch and my anniversary bracelet just yesterday morning.
Marcus pulled a copy of the pawn shop receipt from his leather folder and slid it across the desk.
I looked at the receipt and felt a wave of nausea wash over me.
She had sold my priceless family treasures for a fraction of their actual worth.
But the most disturbing part was not the amount of money she received.
Marcus had tracked where the cash went immediately after Vanessa left the pawn shop.
She didn't use it to buy designer clothes or fund Daniel's struggling business.
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She deposited the cash into an untraceable cryptocurrency wallet belonging to a notorious private investigator.
Vanessa was paying a highly dangerous man to dig up dirt on my late husband's past.
