So were several things Ethan had bought for himself.
The nursery remained exactly as I had left it.
I stood in the doorway holding Noah and cried until my knees hurt.
Not because I had won the house.
Because I had nearly lost my life while treating safety as something I needed permission to claim.
The company investigation began the following week.
I called a special meeting of the board under the bylaws Ethan had once asked me to revise. He arrived with his lawyer. Sloane did not attend.
Ethan looked at me across the conference table.
“You’re really doing this?”
“Yes.”
“You’re using the company to punish me for the affair.”
“No.”
I slid copies of the Northstar Creative invoices across the table.
“I’m using my authority as controlling shareholder to investigate four hundred thousand dollars in payments to a vendor connected to the marketing director’s family.”
His face changed.
The directors noticed.
A forensic accounting firm was retained unanimously, including by two board members Ethan had expected to support him.
He was placed on paid administrative leave during the review.
Sloane was suspended the same day.
The audit took six weeks.
I knew enough not to guess at its outcome.
But I also knew what bad documentation smelled like.
Northstar had submitted invoices for branding strategy, customer acquisition, market analysis, and campaign development. Some work existed. Much of it did not.
The company’s email archive showed Sloane repeatedly approving Northstar invoices despite internal questions about deliverables. Bank records showed that Northstar transferred significant amounts to a separate account used for expenses benefiting Sloane and Ethan: travel, hotel charges, private dining, and a lease deposit on an apartment they had discussed using after the divorce.
The worst part was not the affair.
It was that company money had been used to subsidize it.
Ethan insisted he had believed the charges were legitimate marketing expenses.
Then auditors found emails from him telling Sloane to “route it through Northstar” because personal reimbursement would “look messy at home.”
That sentence ended his defense with the board.
He was removed as chief executive.
