Chapter 4 - The Cost of Leaving the Mansion
Anastasia petitioned the court for temporary protection and access to personal belongings at the Paradise Valley house.
The mansion was titled jointly, but Melissa had moved into the guest wing after Callan’s father died and treated the property like a family seat. Brooklyn used the pool house whenever she was between relationships, apartments, or jobs.
Anastasia had lived there for seven years.
She could not return alone.
Two days after the dinner, a civil standby allowed her twenty minutes to collect clothing, medication, her passport, and work devices she could prove were personal.
Callan stood at the end of the entry hall while an officer remained between them.
His cheek had healed.
Her bruising had turned purple along the jaw.
“You’ve made this uglier than it needed to be,” he said.
Anastasia kept folding clothes into a suitcase.
“You wrote the press statement before dinner.”
“I didn’t write anything.”
“You approved it.”
“You cannot prove that.”
She looked toward the kitchen camera, which police had removed for preservation.
Callan followed her eyes.
“That camera won’t save you.”
The words confirmed he feared it.
Anastasia reached for the locked drawer in her bedside table.
It was empty.
Inside she had kept an encrypted hardware token used to approve high-value company transactions. The device resembled a black key fob and generated one-time authorization codes for the lender portal.
She turned toward Callan.
“Where is my financial token?”
“I don’t know.”
“It was here.”
“You lose things when you’re upset.”
The officer documented the missing device but could not determine who removed it.
Back at the hotel, Anastasia called the bank.
A transfer request had been initiated the previous evening using her executive profile and a valid token code.
The transaction had not completed because the company controller refused the second approval.
The request would have moved $6.4 million from Whitmore Custom Estates to Solterra.
Callan had told the board Anastasia was too unstable to control company assets.
Someone was simultaneously attempting to use her credentials.
Dana advised her to freeze the token and formally report possible unauthorized access.
Doing that would protect the money.
It would also trigger a lender review that could suspend the company’s credit line and delay payroll.
Whitmore employed more than one hundred people.
Anastasia knew exactly what the decision could cost.
She authorized the freeze anyway.
By afternoon, subcontractor payments were delayed.
Melissa called from an unknown number.
“You are punishing working families because you cannot control your temper.”
Anastasia nearly answered.
Then she remembered the PR statement waiting before the soup had been served.
She ended the call and submitted an emergency request to stop the Solterra transaction.
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The marriage had become litigation.
The family business was about to become evidence.
