Chapter 6 - The Unraveling of Leila Morgan
While Darius was locked inside his Gold Coast penthouse, refusing to answer calls from reporters while his public relations firm resigned in disgrace, Leila Morgan was desperately trying to save herself.
At ten o'clock on Thursday morning, Leila walked into the office of Vance & Sterling.
She no longer wore the cream silk dress or the arrogant, untouchable posture she had displayed at Atlas House. She wore a simple dark suit, her hair pulled back tightly, her face pale and lined with stress.
Marcus Vance and Noel were waiting for her in the conference room.
Leila sat down nervously, placing a silver flash drive on the glass table between them.
"I didn't know he was going to hit you, Noel," Leila said quickly, her voice trembling. "I swear to God, I didn't know he was capable of that. If I had known—"
"You knew he was capable of stealing from his wife," Noel said coldly, her hazel eyes cutting through Leila’s excuses. "You helped him forge my signature on the intellectual property transfer documents three years ago so he could take full ownership of my father’s recipe archives."
Leila swallowed hard, her eyes darting to Marcus Vance, who was calmly taking notes.
"Darius told me you were fully aware of the corporate restructuring," Leila whispered. "He told me you didn't want to deal with the business side, that you just wanted to stay in the kitchen."
"And the silk dress in his garment bag?" Noel asked, leaning back. "Was that part of the corporate restructuring too?"
Leila’s face flushed red. She looked down at her hands. "He promised me I would be made Chief Operating Officer once the Vanguard expansion cleared. He promised me ten percent equity in the international brand. But yesterday... yesterday his lawyers tried to pin the offshore bank transfers on me."
Marcus picked up the silver flash drive from the table. "What’s on this, Ms. Morgan?"
"Everything," Leila confessed, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Five years of Darius’s real financial records. The double-entry accounting ledgers he kept for the offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. The wire transfers to his personal gambling accounts in Macau. And the email threads showing he deliberately understated The Hearth & Crown’s revenue to depress its valuation before forcing Noel to sign over her shares."
Noel looked at the woman sitting across from her—a woman who had spent years trying to replace her, only to be thrown under the bus the moment the boat started sinking.
"Why are you giving us this, Leila?" Noel asked quietly.
"Because Darius is a monster," Leila said, a tear finally escaping her eye. "And if I'm going to prison for corporate fraud, I'm not going alone. He’s going down first."
Marcus inserted the flash drive into his laptop, scanning through the folders. A satisfied, formidable smile spread across his face.
May you like
"With this," Marcus said, looking up at Noel, "we don't just win the divorce. We bring criminal charges against Darius Holt for grand larceny, wire fraud, and tax evasion."
Noel stood up, looking down at Leila. "Thank you for the dress, Leila. It was the most expensive mistake Darius ever made."
