Chapter 22 - Watching the utterly disgraced former husband beg for desperate mercy from inside a freezing prison yard while his high social status vanishes into thin air.
The federal jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all forty felony counts against Marcus and Jessica after only two hours of deliberation.
Judge Robert Sterling sentenced Marcus to thirty-five years in federal prison without the possibility of parole.
Jessica received twenty-five years for her role in the conspiracy, public assault, and international money laundering.
Marcus stood in the prison yard months later, shivering in his orange jumpsuit against the biting winter wind of upstate New York.
He watched other inmates walk past him without a second glance, his expensive suits and Wall Street titles completely forgotten.
He pulled his thin jacket tighter around his shoulders, realizing that his arrogance had traded a life of luxury for a cage of ice.
Back in Manhattan, giant billboards displayed advertisements for Clara's philanthropic foundation alongside pictures of baby Eleanor.
Marcus dropped his head into his hands, sobbing tears of bitter regret that nobody cared to hear or acknowledge.
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His name was now a permanent cautionary tale taught in business schools across America as the ultimate cost of unchecked greed.
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