Chapter 5: The Substructure of Grace

Within twenty-four hours, the chaotic cellphone footage, crudely dubbed the “Hamptons Horror Confession,” had amassed over fifty million views across every major social media platform. The public fallout was immediate and devastating.

By Monday morning, the board of directors at Richard’s tech conglomerate held an emergency, unrecorded vote and officially ousted him before the New York Stock Exchange even opened for trading.

The state police launched a major public investigation into historical child endangerment and the multi-million-dollar insurance fraud connected to the townhouse fire. Eleanor, who had spent her entire adult life carefully building relationships with the philanthropic elite, found her phone silent.