The last movement; Aftermath

We stayed at the villa until the New Year, so we missed the start of the fallout. Owen and Logan had put together a package with all the information and all of our conclusions. They had gone over everything, ensuring that they removed all traces of their illegal stroll through the internet.

In addition to the Board of Donaldson and the EU prosecutors, we decided to send the information to a pair of investigative journalists who specialised in finance; one based in America and the other in England.

Owen convinced me to add a friend of his, a blogger, to the list; her name was Gillian, and she was a genius. Once she got the story out, her site had over a hundred thousand page hits in the first 48 hours.

We had been back in the UK for a couple of days when we got our first real clue that the seeds were starting to take root. Rebecca’s mother called to wish us a happy New Year. After the call, Rebecca told me that her father had been interviewed by the FBI.

Six months later, we were able to take stock of all that had occurred. The list was extensive.

Rebecca’s father had been stripped of his qualifications by the Georgia Bar Association and was currently serving a two-year sentence in a low-security federal prison. He’d plea bargained, turning states evidence against the rest of the conspirators. Rebecca’s mother, Rachael, had decided she’d had enough, and was in the process of divorcing Conrad. She was staying with us for the next couple of months, completely spoiling her grandchildren.

Roger is looking at a minimum of ten years behind bars, and a fine that has more noughts in it than some small countries’ annual income. The Donaldson Corporation was also suing him to try and recover the fraudulently sold companies. He was going to lose everything. His wife, Pam, was following in Rachael’s footsteps and was divorcing Roger.

Rebecca is working part-time for a women’s rights group based in Brighton. She’ll be taking a break in a couple of months as she’s expecting our third child, a result we think, of a rather intimate model session we did for Francesca. Well, she wanted authenticity, and we got a bit carried away. The resulting painting is amazing and lives above our bed, just in case we need any inspiration.

Finally, Marcus, did Marcus get his just deserts? Hell yes, he did. The Romanians want a piece of him. So does the EU, and the Americans want what’s left. Then there’s a Chinese ‘businessman’ who wants to have a long discussion about the money he lent him to finance the original purchase of the Romanian companies. He’s currently sitting in jail in Romania, sharing a cell with a couple of Neo-Nazis and that’s probably the safest place for him. Geraldine reckons that he’ll be in his 70s before he is eligible for parole.

Rebecca and I saw him at his last court appearance, and we barely recognised him. He stood in the dock, old bruises marred his face, and he looked at least ten years older. It didn’t look like he was best friends with his cell mates. His eyes scanned around the court, stopping in shock when he saw us. Rebecca stood briefly so he could see she was pregnant. He blanched, then turned his face away. He never looked at us again.