Chapter 18 - Grant's Name on the Ledger
Tyler stared at his father.
Leah did too.
Grant felt fourteen months of suspicion circle back and land on him.
"I have never seen that ledger."
Renee did not reassure him. "Then we prove that."
The ledger showed transfers totaling $11.8 million from Mercer trust-linked entities into shell companies.
Several transfers carried Grant's digital authorization code.
"My credentials were used," he said.
Priya examined the audit trail.
"Not from your office. From a remote certificate issued to an executive device."
"Whose?"
"I'm tracing it."
Tyler asked the question Grant feared most.
"Could Mom have thought you were part of it?"
Grant answered honestly.
"Yes."
Tyler blinked.
"You're not even going to deny that?"
"I can deny doing it. I can't deny what the documents might have looked like to her."
Leah nodded slightly.
That mattered.
At 3:20 a.m., Priya found the certificate.
Assigned device: CFO-ECRANE-02.
Elliot Crane.
Grant exhaled for what felt like the first time in an hour.
Renee said, "Elliot cloned your authorization credentials."
"Why use my name?"
"Insurance. If the scheme collapsed, you took the fall."
Police had Elliot in custody after his boardroom statements. Ryan remained missing.
At dawn, a patrol officer found Ryan's vehicle abandoned near the river.
Blood was visible on the driver's seat.
No body.
Leah stared at the report.
"Victor would kill him too."
Renee said, "Victor was in custody before the car was abandoned."
"Then Elliot?"
"Also in custody."
The room went quiet.
Grant looked at Priya.
"There is someone else."
Priya opened Caroline's board-payments folder.
One name had appeared repeatedly as a consultant receiving small payments that avoided internal review thresholds.
Marianne Cole.
Leah frowned. "Ryan's mother?"
Grant knew the name for another reason.
Marianne Cole had been Caroline's private therapist for nearly two years.
Renee's face hardened.
"She had access to Caroline's fears, medication history, family conflicts, and schedule."
Tyler whispered, "And maybe mine."
Grant remembered Victor's knowledge of Tyler's counseling notes.
Renee reached for her phone.
Before she could dial, Leah's phone buzzed.
A message from Ryan.
I'M ALIVE. MY MOTHER ISN'T HELPING VICTOR. SHE IS THE ONE VICTOR WAS AFRAID OF.
May you like
Then a location pin appeared.
A closed psychiatric clinic forty minutes outside the city.
