Chapter 3: The Empire Begins to Fall
The financial investigation moved faster than anyone expected.
Within hours, forensic accountants uncovered years of hidden transactions.
Luxury properties.
Secret investment accounts.
Fake consulting contracts.
Every trail led back to Victoria.
Daniel felt as though he had been living beside a stranger.
Meanwhile, reporters gathered outside the mansion after learning that police had reopened several unsolved employee theft cases.
Former workers began arriving one after another.
Some had lost their homes.
Others had declared bankruptcy.
One elderly gardener quietly placed an old employee badge on the front gate.
"I waited fifteen years for someone to believe me."
Emma watched from inside, tears filling her eyes.
Daniel walked outside and faced every former employee.
"I failed all of you."
No cameras.
No lawyers.
No prepared statement.
Just a simple apology.
For the first time, several of them believed him.
Inside the mansion, officers searched Victoria's private office.
Behind a locked cabinet, they discovered a hidden safe.
Inside were dozens of employee personnel files.
Every folder contained handwritten notes.
Weaknesses.
Debts.
Family problems.
Personal fears.
Victoria hadn't chosen her victims randomly.
She had studied them.
And then used their lives against them.
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But buried beneath those files was one envelope labeled only:
Daniel.
