Chapter 2 - The Empty Vault
My hands shook violently as I stared at the banking alert on my phone screen.
Fifty thousand dollars was practically the entire operating budget for my small firm.
I needed that money to cover payroll for my three employees by Friday.
Without those funds, my business would collapse before the end of the month.
I quickly ushered Theo into our apartment and locked the deadbolt behind us.
I set him up with his favorite video game in the living room.
Then I sprinted into my home office and booted up my work laptop.
My fingers flew across the keyboard as I logged into the secure banking portal.
I needed to see exactly where that massive wire transfer had gone.
The transaction log loaded slowly, torturing me with every second of delay.
The screen finally refreshed to reveal the destination of the stolen funds.
The money had been routed to an offshore holding account in the Cayman Islands.
It was a sophisticated move that required more financial knowledge than Drew possessed.
Someone had to have helped her set this up.
Suddenly, my cell phone vibrated on the desk.
The caller ID showed it was my sister.
I answered the call but did not say a single word.
Drew’s voice echoed through the speaker with a sickeningly sweet tone.
She asked if I had enjoyed my little power trip at the birthday party.
She told me that family requires sacrifice and I had forgotten my place.
I told her she was going to federal prison for wire fraud.
I warned her that I was calling the police the moment I hung up the phone.
Drew just let out a long, chilling laugh.
She suggested I look closely at the authorization signature on the wire transfer document before calling the cops.
My stomach dropped as I clicked the attachment link in the transaction history.
A scanned PDF of the wire authorization form popped up on my monitor.
I scrolled down to the bottom of the page to check the approval section.
There was no sign of Drew’s handwriting anywhere on the document.
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The signature that authorized the fifty thousand dollar theft was a flawless forgery of my own name.
Right below my forged signature was the official notary stamp of my ex-husband.
