Chapter 5 - The Sister Turns
Two weeks passed. The news of my family's scandal had ripped through our social circles like a wildfire. The same people who had commented on Chloe’s video calling me crazy were now deleting their posts and pretending they had never associated with my family.
Chloe was out on bail, but she was entirely broke. Her boutique was boarded up, seized by the feds. Her bank accounts were frozen.
I was sitting in Marcus’s office when my phone rang. It was an unknown number. I answered on speaker.
"Elena? It's Chloe." Her voice was small, shaking. "Please don't hang up."
Marcus nodded at me to keep her talking.
"What do you want, Chloe?"
"I'm scared," she sobbed. "Dad's lawyers are telling him to pin the money laundering on me. They want to say I orchestrated the whole thing because I was the one who received the funds. Elena, he's trying to throw me under the bus to save himself!"
A grim smile crossed my face. There is no loyalty among thieves.
"Why are you calling me?" I asked.
"Because I know things," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I know about the safety deposit box Dad keeps in the city. The one he didn't put in David’s files. If I give you the key, will you ask the prosecutor to go easy on me?"
I looked at Marcus. He scribbled something on a notepad: Take the meeting. Do not make promises.
"Meet me at Marcus Vance’s office in an hour," I said. "Bring the key."
When Chloe arrived, she looked like a ghost of her former self. No makeup, wearing cheap sweatpants, trembling. She placed a small silver key on the mahogany desk.
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"He keeps cash in there. And passports," Chloe confessed, wiping her nose. "He was planning to run. He was going to leave me and Mom behind."
It was the final nail in my father’s coffin. He was a coward to the very end.
