Chapter 4 - The Dissection of Lawson Global
Garrett arrived at his twelve-million-dollar estate in suburban Winnetka at 8:15 a.m.
The sprawling stone mansion was dead quiet. He ran up the grand staircase to the master bedroom. The closet doors were wide open. Meredith’s clothes, her jewelry boxes, and her medical textbooks were gone. On the nightstand sat her platinum wedding ring, glinting cold and bright beneath the chandelier.
Beside the ring lay a single sheet of paper.
It was not a letter. It was a formal legal notice served by Sterling & Associates: an immediate petition for legal separation, a temporary restraining order, and a demand for full digital forensic imaging of all personal and corporate assets owned by Garrett Lawson.
Garrett slammed his fist against the nightstand. "Damn it, Meredith!"
Thirty miles away, in a high-rise office building in downtown Chicago, William Sterling sat at the head of a long mahogany conference table.
Around him sat a team he had personally assembled over forty-eight hours: Marcus Vance, a former senior forensic accountant for the IRS Criminal Investigation Division; Sarah Lin, a top-tier digital forensics analyst; and Victoria Chen, Chicago’s most ruthless civil litigation attorney.
"What do we have, Sarah?" William asked, his voice steady and quiet.
Sarah Lin tapped her keyboard, projecting a massive spreadsheet onto the wall monitor.
"We pulled the public cell tower records and Garrett’s personal cloud server backups from the house network before he could wipe them," Sarah explained. "On the night Lucas died, Garrett’s phone was pinging off the tower directly adjacent to the Grand Hyatt from 8:15 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. this morning."
She clicked a button, bringing up a receipt log.
"At 10:14 p.m.—right between Meredith’s eighth and ninth calls—Garrett’s corporate credit card was charged for room service at Suite 1402: two orders of caviar, a bottle of Dom Pérignon, and a late-night fruit platter. Total cost: $1,420."
Marcus Vance leaned forward, his spectacles balanced on his nose. "Here’s where it gets criminal, William. That room wasn't booked under Garrett’s name. It was booked through 'Vance Strategic Holdings'—a shell LLC registered in Delaware that Lawson Global acquired six months ago. Garrett has been using company funds to pay for luxury suites, private flights, and hush-money retainers for Chloe Vance."
William looked at the timeline displayed on the wall.
10:14 PM: Room service ordered ($1,420). 10:15 PM: Meredith’s 9th call (Ignored). 10:50 PM: Meredith’s 12th call: 'He keeps asking for you' (Ignored). 11:15 PM: Room service delivered. 11:47 PM: Lucas Lawson pronounced dead.
William’s expression didn't change, but his grey eyes burned with an icy, lethal intensity.
"He didn't just ignore his dying son," William said softly. "He embezzled shareholder funds to finance the affair that kept him in that bed while my grandson drew his last breath."
Victoria Chen looked at William. "If we file this in civil court, Garrett’s legal team will move immediately to seal the exhibits under the guise of protecting corporate trade secrets and privacy."
"Let them try," William said, standing up from his chair. "We aren't just filing a wrongful death suit, Victoria. We are filing an emergency shareholder derivative action on behalf of Lawson Global’s institutional investors. We are alleging gross breach of fiduciary duty, corporate waste, and systemic fraud."
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He looked out the window at the snow falling over the city.
"When you sue a man for money, he fights you with lawyers," William murmured. "When you strike at his public reputation and his corporate crown, he turns into a panicked animal. Let's see how well Garrett Lawson performs under pressure."
