Chapter 8 - The Alliance
Elena Vance’s office was located on the thirty-second floor of an immaculate glass tower in downtown Minneapolis. When Toby and I walked through the frosted glass doors, Elena was already waiting in the reception area.
She wasn't wearing the glamorous cashmere sweater from the flight. She was dressed in a sharp black blazer, her eyes slightly puffy from lack of sleep, but her expression was fierce and determined.
She had arranged for an assistant to take Toby to a private lounge down the hall, stocked with coloring books, fresh fruit, video games, and juice boxes.
"He’ll be completely safe here while we talk," Elena said gently, looking down at Toby with a soft, apologetic smile. "Hi, Toby. I’m Elena. I’m so sorry for yesterday."
Toby looked at her curiously, then nodded shyly before following the assistant into the game room.
Once the door clicked shut, Elena led me into a large conference room where two attorneys were seated around a table covered in manila folders and digital tablets.
"Claire, this is Marcus Vance, my brother and head of our legal team, and Sarah Jenkins, our forensic financial specialist," Elena introduced them.
"Mrs. Matthews," Marcus said, standing to shake my hand with genuine respect. "What your husband did borders on federal wire fraud and systemic fraud by deception. We’ve already spent the morning pulling his flight logs, his LLC filings, and his communications with Northern Skies Express."
"What did the airline say?" I asked, sitting down at the center of the table.
"Northern Skies suspended Brandon’s flight privileges at midnight," Marcus revealed, sliding a printed memorandum across the table. "Using the aircraft’s public address system for personal matters without prior authorization from the head of flight operations is a severe violation of FAA protocols. But doing so while misrepresenting himself and causing an international viral scandal? They have officially placed him on indefinite unpaid leave pending a full disciplinary board hearing on Friday."
"He called me forty times last night," I said, opening my laptop to display the banking records. "He’s desperate. He knows the house of cards is falling."
"It gets worse for him, Claire," Sarah, the forensic accountant, chimed in. She turned her tablet toward me, showing a complex flow chart. "Brandon was using his airline layovers to maintain three separate credit cards under variations of his middle name. He told Elena he was wiring funds from a trust fund, but he was actually taking high-interest personal loans against your family home’s equity without your signature."
My stomach dropped. "He forged my signature on a home equity loan?"
"Two months ago," Sarah confirmed, pointing to a scanned PDF document. "A sixty-thousand-dollar second mortgage on your house in Chicago. The signature on page twelve is an obvious forgery."
"That’s a federal felony," Marcus stated bluntly. "Bank fraud alone carries up to thirty years in federal prison. If we present this to the Cook County District Attorney and the United States Attorney’s Office simultaneously, Brandon Matthews will not just lose his wings—he will spend the next decade behind bars."
I stared at the forged signature on the screen. It was my name, written in Brandon’s distinct, slanted handwriting, trying to mimic my curves. Ten years of marriage, shared holidays, raising a child together... all reduced to a fraudulent document designed to finance a fantasy life.
"I don't want his life destroyed out of petty revenge," I said, looking up at Elena and her legal team. "I want full sole custody of Toby. I want every dime of Toby’s college fund restored. I want my home cleared of all fraudulent liens. And I want Brandon Matthews out of our lives forever."
Elena leaned forward, placing her hand firmly over mine. "You're going to get all of it, Claire. Every single penny. Marcus and I will fund the entire legal litigation. You won't pay a dime for representation."
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"Why are you doing this for me?" I asked, genuinely touched by her generosity. "You could just cut your losses and walk away."
Elena’s eyes flashed with fierce resolve. "Because he used me as a weapon against you and your little boy. Nobody uses my name to hurt a mother and her child. We take him down together."
