After the gala ended, the bodyguards took Victor and Lily out through a side gate of The Vance Estate.
The pink diamond on Lily's hand had been sealed as evidence, and the gown taken for the same purpose. She was bundled in a coat one of the staff had thrown over her shoulders, looking like a stray dog.
"Victor, do something!"
Victor stood in the snow, blood still oozing from the back of his hand, staring blankly at the shut gates of the Vances' estate. Maybe he still couldn't quite believe that I really was Stella Vance. Even less that the whole self-made ascent of the past ten years had been a ladder I'd personally handed to him.
The next day, when the market opened, Thorne Industries blew through its IPO price. The SEC subpoena came down almost immediately.
#ThorneIndustries'sCapit
