The Fallen Heiress: Contract Marriage with the CEO Who Hates Me
Chapter 31: The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 31: The Beginning Of The End

"Here is your water, Miss Devold."

Jane slowly lifted her head, her mind still clouded, and noticed her family’s lawyer, Mr. Dallas Wade, standing next to her with a plastic bottle of water in his hands.

Still shaken and somewhat disoriented, she accepted the bottle with trembling fingers, staring blankly at the opposite wall, unsure of what to do next.

After hearing the devastating news about her father, a man from the prosecutor’s office had asked her to come with him "for a chat". Jane was the only member of the Devold family who could testify on behalf of Mr. Ian Devold and everyone in his close surroundings.

The prosecutor in charge of her father’s case had allowed her to contact their family lawyer, who—despite his unexpected reluctance—agreed to help, simply out of pity for the young woman caught in such an awful situation.

Now, the two of them sat in a quiet interrogation room, waiting for Prosecutor Green to return with the legal documents for her to review and sign.

At last, the door opened, and a tall, slim man of respectable age stepped inside. He took a seat behind the wooden desk. His grayish skin tone and weary expression suggested that exhaustion had taken its toll on him.

Clearing his throat, the man adjusted his black tie before speaking. "So, Miss Devold, I assume you have already been informed that your father, Mr. Ian Devold, is being charged with tax evasion and is currently missing, correct?"

Jane swallowed hard, her throat as dry as a desert. She nodded briefly, her eyes still unable to focus. "Yes. I—I’ve b-been living abroad for the p-past six months, s-so..."

The man let out a long sigh and handed a thick stack of papers to the young woman sitting across the table. "Your father is being charged with tax fraud, tax evasion, unjust enrichment, wage theft, and labor law violations. In simpler terms, Mr. Ian Devold owes the government hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes and wages."

Jane felt a chill run through her, her blood turning to ice. The words felt foreign, meaningless, as if they were being spoken in another language entirely.

How was this possible? Tax fraud? Labor law violations? It all seemed like a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.

"Are you s-sure?" she asked, leaning forward across the desk. "M-my father is a law-abiding citizen! Our c-company pays t-taxes religiously—we have a s-separate accounting t-team responsible for that! It can’t b-be true!"

Mr. Wade, tired and weary, rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. He spread several documents on the desk in front of Jane. "I’m afraid it’s true, Miss Devold. Take a look—it’s all here. Once the company employees started filing official complaints against your father’s business, everything came to light..."

Prosecutor Green chimed in, his voice steady but firm. "Your father’s company, VJ Software Solutions, is broke, Miss Devold. Your father has been facing financial difficulties since last year. Take a look at these papers, please."

He tapped his finger on a separate stack of documents before continuing, "Mr. Devold has been taking unregistered loans and laundering money to cover up investors’ losses. He even withheld employees’ salaries for months to falsify the financial reports. Has your father ever mentioned any of this to you?"

Suddenly, Jane felt as though the world was spinning around her. Everything stopped making sense, and she couldn’t help but wonder—was this all just a sick dream brought on by jet lag?

Mr. Wade noticed how pale she had gone and quickly shoved a cold bottle of water into her hands, urging her to drink. Jane obeyed as though hypnotized, emptying the bottle too quickly. She gasped for air as the full weight of the situation finally hit her.

It wasn’t a nightmare, and it wasn’t just jet lag. This was her reality now.

Trembling, Jane shook her head, her eyes locked on the prosecutor’s stern face. "N-no," she whispered, "he n-never said anything t-to me."

Another heavy sigh escaped Prosecutor Green, though he struggled to mask his growing frustration. Jane’s pale face was starting to worry him. "Miss Devold, I’m afraid I won’t sugarcoat this for you. Not only is your father in trouble—your entire family is in serious debt. And since Mr. Devold is charged with tax fraud, if you cannot repay the government, once he’s found, he will go to jail."

Jane’s heart sank, and she felt her body turn to formless mush. Any minute now, she thought, and she would melt to the floor, utterly lifeless. The man continued speaking.

"The Internal Revenue Service will seize all your property and assess it. Anything that can be sold will be sold, and the proceeds will, of course, be confiscated. All your assets will be frozen too, which means that from today onward, you will not be able to access any of your bank accounts."

Slowly, everything started to make sense to Jane. Even on her return from her long vacation abroad, she had noticed some of her credit cards no longer working—a first for her.

Felicity had found it odd too, but since Jane still had cash on hand, she thought it was simply a bank error.

Now, Jane knew the truth.

"...Devold? Miss Devold?"

The prosecutor’s voice, slightly irritated, finally broke through the fog in her mind, snapping Jane back to reality. "Y-yes?"

The man groaned softly and cleared his throat, masking his annoyance. "Do you have any idea where your father might be right now?"

Jane had to force herself to calm her racing mind and think clearly. No, she had no idea. Her father had been in touch just a few days ago when she told him she was coming back home, but since then, he had gone silent.

Usually, she would have dismissed it as him being busy, but now, as she reflected on it, she realized she should have been more alert to his sudden silence.

"N-no," she shook her head slowly. "I d-don’t know."