Chapter 2 - The Emptied Nest
After an hour of hot chocolate, warm blankets, and constant reassurance, the twins finally fell asleep in Michael’s master bedroom, holding each other's hands, anchored safely on either side of their father.
Michael waited until their breathing turned deep and rhythmic. He gently slipped out of bed, covered them with two heavy down comforters, and walked out into the dark hallway, his phone pressed to his ear.
He dialed his personal attorney, David Sterling.
"Michael?" David’s voice sounded groggy. It was 1:30 AM. "You're back from Tokyo already?"
"David. Listen to me very carefully," Michael said, his voice flat, emotionless, and colder than the storm outside. "Victoria locked Emma and Sophie outside in the rain four hours ago and abandoned them. She left with Richard Vance."
There was a stunned, heavy silence on the other end of the line.
"What?" David gasped. "Michael... are the girls okay?"
"They're suffering from mild hypothermia and severe psychological trauma, but they are alive," Michael replied, standing in Victoria’s walk-in closet.
The closet was completely gutted. Millions of dollars worth of designer dresses, custom shoes, expensive handbags, and Victoria's priceless jewelry collection were gone. Only empty hangers swung gently in the draft from the AC.
"I need emergency sole custody papers drafted immediately," Michael ordered, walking toward his private home office. "I want a temporary restraining order against Victoria and Richard. And I want an immediate audit of all joint bank accounts, corporate assets, and Thompson-Richardson treasury funds."
"I'm on it," David said, his tone instantly shifting into battle mode. "Michael, if Richard is involved... you need to check the company’s internal accounts right now."
Michael opened his laptop at his desk. His fingers flew across the keyboard, bypassing three levels of security encryption to access the company's master financial database.
Five seconds later, the screen flashed red.
ALERT: UNAUTHORIZED CAPITAL TRANSFER DETAILED.
Michael’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth groaned.
Over the past forty-eight hours, while Michael was thirty thousand feet in the air flying back from Japan, Richard Vance had used his executive access as CFO—along with Victoria’s forged power-of-attorney signatures—to drain forty-five million dollars from the company’s clinical trial reserves.
The money had been routed through offshore shell accounts in the Cayman Islands and ultimately deposited into a private bank in Zurich.
The Tokyo deal—the pediatric immune disorder research that Michael had sacrificed three weeks of his life for—was completely bankrupt before it even started.
"They took the clinical trial funds," Michael said softly into the phone. "Forty-five million."
"My God," David breathed. "Michael, that's grand larceny, corporate espionage, and child endangerment. This isn't just a divorce anymore. They tried to ruin your entire life."
"They didn't just try to ruin my life, David," Michael said, staring at a framed photograph of Emma and Sophie sitting on his desk. "They left my children to die in the rain for money."
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"What do you want me to do?"
"Call the FBI," Michael instructed coldly. "Call the SEC. And get a private investigator on the first flight to Zurich. I don't care if I have to spend every last dollar I own. I am going to hunt Victoria and Richard down to the ends of the earth."
