Three days later, without ever regaining consciousness, Victor passed away.
The funeral was a remarkably quiet, barren affair. This wasn’t due to a desire for privacy, but because the federal freeze on all of Apex Holdings’ assets, and Victor’s personal accounts, had hit the local news cycles the morning of his death. The titans of industry who had kissed his ring suddenly wanted nothing to do with a man under posthumous federal investigation.
The legal fallout was swift and merciless, exactly as I had orchestrated.
The eight commercial properties he had signed over to Melissa were heavily leveraged. Because they were tied to fraudulent shell companies I had meticulously tracked and exposed, the bank called in the loans immediately. The properties were seized by federal marshals within a fortnight.
Melissa, having signed documents as a trustee and beneficiary of embezzled, untaxed funds, found herself facing severe accessory and money laundering charges. She was forced to liquidate whatever personal jewelry she had left just to afford a mid-tier defense attorney. She vacated her luxury apartment before the eviction notice could even be taped to the door.
