Inside my Range Rover, the courthouse noise disappeared behind tinted glass.
I sat alone for almost a minute.
No tears.
No rage.
Only relief.
Then I opened an album on my phone titled Us.
Thousands of photographs appeared.
Our wedding.
Vacations.
Anniversaries.
Family dinners.
Then came the private-investigator photographs.
Dominic standing too close to Natalie.
Natalie leaving hotels.
Receipts.
Messages.
Moments that once made me physically sick.
I selected everything.
Delete.
The phone asked whether I was sure.
“Yes.”
Then I called my father.
He answered immediately.
“Audrey.”
That was all he said.
No lecture.
No judgment.
“Dad. I was wrong about him.”
There was a long silence.
Then he answered gently.
“I know.”
Those two words nearly broke me.
I told him what Dominic had said outside the courthouse.
That his family controlled Crestwood now.
That they had people in nearly every department.
My father did not sound surprised.
“They do.”
I closed my eyes.
“Can we recover from this?”
He almost sounded offended.
“We survived recessions. Hostile takeovers. Losing your mother.”
Then his voice hardened.
“We will survive Dominic Vance.”
I smiled.
Then my father’s tone changed completely.
Cold.
Precise.
Corporate.
“I have been waiting years for this call.”
I went silent.
He continued.
“Our compliance department documented everything.”
Fraudulent vendors.
Payroll manipulation.
Inflated contracts.
Illegal commissions.
Consulting agreements that existed only on paper.
Purchases disguised as business expenses.
My breathing slowed.
“You knew?”
“I created Crestwood Holdings. Of course I knew.”
“Then why didn’t you stop them?”
My father paused.
“Because you still loved him.”
That answer hurt more than I expected.
“If I had acted earlier, Audrey, you would have defended him.”
He was right.
Dominic had not survived because he was smarter than my father.
He had survived because my father refused to force me to see something I was not ready to accept.
Then Dad asked.
“What do you want to happen now?”
I looked at the dashboard clock.
Just after one.
I thought about Dominic standing outside the courthouse laughing.
Then I answered.
“At two o’clock, I want HR in the executive boardroom.”
“Corporate Security at every entrance.”
“Legal standing by.”
“Disable Dominic’s building access.”
“Remove Victoria Vance’s credentials.”
“Cancel every company credit card connected to their family.”
“Freeze every consulting agreement they control.”
My father listened.
Then he asked.
“And the employees they placed inside Crestwood?”
I looked back at the courthouse through the rear window.
“Every person involved in the scheme gets reviewed immediately.”
“And anyone the evidence supports terminating?”
I started the engine.
“Terminate them.”
My father laughed quietly.
“Welcome home, Audrey.”
I shifted into drive.
“No.”
“What?”
“I’m not starting upstairs.”
I pulled away from the curb.
“I’m starting on the ground floor.”
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