Chapter 3 - The Corporate Ambush
Daniel’s life was unraveling at a spectacular speed, but the true devastation was reserved for the corporate gala his company was hosting that Friday.
Daniel had been campaigning for a promotion to Vice President of Regional Sales for two years. He had foolishly decided to bring Natalie to the gala as his plus-one, eager to show off his younger, adoring mistress to his colleagues now that our marriage was an open secret in his office. He wanted to project the image of a powerful, completely unbothered executive entering a fresh new chapter.
He didn't know that my attorney, Eleanor, had already submitted a highly confidential, legally binding dossier to the fraud department of his company's bank, which happened to be the exact same bank he had defrauded to secure the forged home equity loan.
I didn't attend the gala, but I didn't need to. The corporate grapevine, fueled by the wives of Daniel’s colleagues whom I had befriended over the past decade, provided a minute-by-minute account of the slaughter.
Daniel and Natalie arrived at the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton looking like a million bucks—which was ironic, considering Daniel was currently entirely insolvent. Natalie was wearing a stunning silk gown, clinging to his arm, completely unaware that Daniel’s credit cards had all been declined that afternoon because the fraud department had frozen every single account tied to his social security number.
Midway through the evening, the CEO of the company approached Daniel’s table. But he wasn't there to offer a promotion. He was accompanied by two unsmiling men in dark suits from corporate security, and two uniformed police officers.
Because Daniel had used his corporate computer and his company's internal notary seal to falsify the loan documents—a detail I had discovered in the digital metadata of the PDF—he had committed corporate fraud on top of identity theft.
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Right in front of his boss, his colleagues, and a horrified Natalie, the police officers asked Daniel to step out into the hallway. When he tried to argue, his voice echoing over the quiet clinking of champagne glasses, the officers simply clicked handcuffs over his wrists and read him his Miranda rights in front of the entire ballroom.
Natalie, horrified and realizing her sugar daddy was suddenly a humiliated criminal, didn't follow him to the precinct. According to my sources, she called an Uber, went straight back to the luxury apartment, and started packing her bags.
