Chapter 4 - The Red Ledger
Sarah entered the office slowly.
The speaker glowed blue.
"Who is this?" she asked.
Static crackled.
Then the voice returned.
"My name is Evan Ross. I work in internal audit at Bennett Development. Your husband has been moving money through shell vendors for eleven months."
Sarah looked at Mark.
He had stopped at the doorway.
"Turn that off," he said.
Evan continued.
"The red ledger is the backup record. If he destroys it, the transfers will be much harder to prove."
Mark lunged for the desk.
Daniel blocked him.
"Don't."
Sarah scanned the room.
The desk drawers were empty. The bookcase looked ordinary. Then she noticed a framed photograph of Lily hanging slightly crooked.
Behind it was a small steel door.
Mark went white.
Sarah lifted the frame.
A red keyhole.
"Where's the key?"
"Sarah, listen to me. This is business. You won't understand it."
"Try me."
Vanessa walked into the office.
"She's going to destroy everything you've built."
Sarah turned. "Everything he built?"
Vanessa hesitated.
Daniel laughed once without humor. "You really don't know, do you?"
Sarah did.
Her late father had founded Bennett Development. When he died, Sarah inherited fifty-one percent. Mark ran day-to-day operations because Sarah had stepped back after Lily was born.
The company was hers.
Mark had spent years acting as if it belonged to him.
Sarah reached toward his jacket.
He backed away.
"Don't."
She saw the red plastic tip of a key in his inside pocket.
Daniel moved first, not touching Mark, just stepping in front of the door.
"Give it to her."
Mark's jaw worked.
Then he pulled the key out and dropped it on the desk.
Sarah opened the steel door.
Inside sat a red leather ledger, a flash drive, and a sealed envelope with her name written across it.
SARAH BENNETT - PERSONAL.
She opened the envelope.
The first page was a draft petition for emergency custody of Lily.
The petitioner was Mark.
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The supporting witness was Vanessa Cole.
And the filing date was tomorrow morning.
