He turned to Karina. “Answer me!”
“Arthur, it’s a lie, she set it all up!” Karina burst into tears, smearing mascara across her cheeks. “She hates me, she wants to drive us apart!”
But Arthur was no longer listening. He threw the folder on the floor, the papers scattered across the parquet, and the screams, accusations, and sobs merged into a single hysterical chorus that Veronica left behind as she walked out of the house.
On the driveway, two people intercepted her. A portly woman in her mid-sixties with an imperious face and a younger woman, who resembled Arthur in features, jumped out of a black SUV.
“Stop, you ungrateful wretch!” Tamara, her mother-in-law, spread her arms, blocking the way. “Where do you think you’re going? We took you in, pulled you out of the gutter, and you destroyed the family!”
“This is Arthur’s property!” Ksenia, her sister-in-law, grabbed the handle of the suitcase. “You’re not taking anything from here, you thief!”
Veronica took the ownership document from her bag, the same one, and handed it to her mother-in-law.
“Tamara, please read this carefully. The owner of this house is me, since 2012. It was your son who lived in my house, not the other way around.”
Tamara clutched her chest, Ksenia dropped the suitcase handle and took a step back, looking at Veronica as one looks at a ghost.
“If you want to help Arthur, hire him a good lawyer. He’s going to need one. Now, get out of my way, I have a flight to catch.”
She got into the waiting taxi and saw in the rearview mirror how Tamara sank onto the snow-dusted driveway, and Ksenia was sobbing into her phone, pressing the receiver to her ear with both hands.
Two weeks later, after signing the contract with Rheinmetall, Veronica returned to Arthur’s company office. But no longer as the owner’s wife, but as an official representative of the German concern, accompanied by three German lawyers and two auditors with laptops.
“Gentlemen, Rheinmetall is concerned about the financial stability of its partner.” She interrupted a meeting, walking into the conference room without knocking, and placed a power of attorney with Schmidt’s signature on the table. “We demand a full audit.”
The three-day audit revealed embezzlement of half a million dollars. Shell companies, fictitious contracts, Karina’s personal expenses written off as business trips. At an emergency shareholder meeting, the largest of them, an old friend of Arthur’s, demanded his resignation and criminal prosecution…
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