Chapter 5 - VICTORIA SAID HER BROTHER WAS GOING TO LOSE EVERYTHINGWe met three days later through attorneys.
Victoria sat across from me.
No jewelry.
No makeup.
She looked exhausted.
“Marcus is desperate.”
“That is not an answer.”
“He could lose the company.”
“So?”
Her eyes widened.
“Jonathan.”
“Your family owns private jets.”
“That isn’t liquidity.”
I almost laughed.
She was right financially.
Wrong morally.
“Then sell the jet.”
“It’s leased.”
“Sell something else.”
“Everything is pledged.”
There it was.
The Voss fortune was enormous on paper.
But control had been built on debt.
Marcus had promised lenders collateral he did not truly have available.
Then hidden losses.
Now margin calls were arriving.
“If the company defaults…”
Victoria whispered.
“Thousands of jobs.”
That made the situation morally harder.
Not morally acceptable.
Harder.
She had convinced herself she was stealing from one rich old woman to save thousands of employees.
But Mom’s gold was not enough.
I asked:
“What was the full plan?”
Victoria looked down.
“Use the vault assets as temporary collateral.”
“Without permission.”
“Yes.”
“Forge Mom’s authorization.”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Thirty days.”
I laughed once.
“You were going to steal thirty-eight million dollars for thirty days.”
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“We would replace it.”
That sentence has probably been spoken in every embezzlement case in history.
