Chapter 17 - The Social Ruin
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As the officers led Victor out the grand front doors in handcuffs, two local news vans pulled up to the security gates outside.
Arthur Langford had ensured that every major media outlet in Los Angeles received an official press release from Hayes Construction Holdings at 5:00 AM, announcing the immediate suspension of Victor Hayes following a criminal investigation.
Paparazzi cameras flashed through the iron gates as Victor was loaded into the back of the police cruiser, wearing his black silk robe and slippers.
By 8:00 AM, video footage from the mansion's foyer security cameras—showing the entire assault from start to finish, including Vanessa smiling on the sofa with her champagne—had been anonymously uploaded to every major social media network.
The two hundred wealthy socialites who had stood by and watched the beating received formal subpoenas in their email inboxes before noon, summoning them to testify as witnesses in a criminal grand jury hearing.
Victor’s name was ruined in every corporate boardroom in California within hours.
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Banks canceled his personal lines of credit. Business partners pulled out of his subsidiary projects. High-society clubs revoked his memberships.
The man who had stood in the foyer twelve hours earlier, boasting about his untouchable success, had been reduced to a mugshot on the evening news.
