Chapter 6 - The Company Was Already Bleeding
Lucas sent a forensic accountant named Priya Shah to meet Claire two days later. Priya was small, precise, and unimpressed by expensive offices. She carried a laptop, three notebooks, and the calm focus of someone who had spent years watching people lie through numbers.
“The first rule,” Priya said, “is that money rarely disappears. It changes clothes.”
They worked in Claire’s dining room while Ethan believed she was organizing old photographs.
Priya traced the company’s accounts through property purchases, construction advances, consulting fees, and payments to entities that existed only on paper. The numbers grew worse with every hour.
“Ethan has been moving money between projects,” Priya said. “One development is covering another’s losses.”
“How much has been lost?”
“We need more records for a final figure. But the immediate shortfall is close to three million dollars.”
Claire looked down at the spreadsheet. “He told investors the company was ahead of schedule.”
“The company may have been ahead on one project because funds were diverted from another.”
“Why would he do this?”
“To delay a collapse.”
Priya opened a second file. “And to maintain appearances.”
The file showed luxury travel, private dinners, expensive watches, and personal charges coded as investor relations.
Claire recognized some of the restaurants. Ethan had told her those dinners were with lenders. She had waited at home, reheating food while he returned after midnight smelling of whiskey and rain.
Then Priya found the charge from Cartier.
$38,000.
The date was three months earlier. The description listed a bracelet.
Claire remembered the first time she had seen it on Vanessa’s wrist. They had been at a company gala, and Vanessa had lifted her champagne glass beneath the lights. The bracelet had flashed like a thin line of fire.
“That’s hers,” Claire said.
Priya glanced at her. “Are you certain?”
“I know that bracelet.”
The expense had been classified as a client relationship gift.
Claire stood abruptly and walked outside. She reached her car before the tears came. She sat behind the wheel and pressed both hands over her face.
She had helped pay for the bracelet.
Not emotionally. Literally. The money came from the account that paid their mortgage, groceries, and medical bills. The account Claire had trusted because she believed marriage meant that both people guarded the same future.
Her sobbing lasted less than five minutes.
When it ended, she wiped her cheeks and looked at herself in the mirror.
“Never again,” she said.
Back inside, Priya had found another account.
“This one is not listed on the company balance sheet,” she said. “The signatories are Ethan Cole and Vanessa Grant.”
Claire’s mouth went dry.
“How much?”
“The balance is two hundred eighty-six thousand. It was opened last year.”
“What is it for?”
“There are payments from three projects and transfers to a holding company registered in Delaware.”
“Can they hide money there?”
“They can try.”
Priya clicked through the transaction history. “There’s also a recurring transfer to an account controlled by Richard Cole.”
Claire frowned. “Ethan’s uncle?”
“That appears to be the name.”
Richard Cole had been absent from family gatherings for years. Margaret referred to him as a traitor who had tried to steal Ethan’s father’s business. Claire had never met him.
“Why would Ethan send him money?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
At dinner, Ethan complained about a delayed permit. Claire passed him the salt and asked whether the company was having cash-flow problems.
He stopped chewing.
“Why would you ask that?”
“I heard you on the phone.”
“You misunderstood.”
“I hope so.”
He studied her. “You’ve been acting strange.”
“I’m pregnant.”
The words rose to her lips and stopped there.
Not yet. Not until she understood the trust, the loan, and the reason Margaret had looked at her as if the baby were a legal complication.
“I’m tired,” Claire said instead.
Ethan relaxed too quickly.
After he went upstairs, Claire opened the folder containing the photograph of Vanessa’s bracelet.
The image had been taken months earlier at the gala. Vanessa was smiling beside Ethan. Her wrist rested against his chest.
In the background, Margaret stood watching them.
Claire zoomed in on the photograph.
May you like
Margaret was not surprised by the couple.
She was smiling.
