Chapter 7 - The Second Set of Books
Nathan called an emergency audit.
By three o'clock, Mercer Hospitality's finance director, Riley Chen, was sitting at the dining room table with two laptops and a stack of vendor reports.
"I need you to understand something," Riley said. "If I'm right, this didn't start this year."
Nathan stood behind her. "How far back?"
"At least four years."
Claire's lawyer had arrived and taken her into the library. She had stopped speaking to everyone else.
Elena kept Lucy upstairs with a movie and a bowl of popcorn, but every few minutes the child asked if her parents were still mad.
Downstairs, Riley clicked through a spreadsheet.
"Bellweather Strategic is connected to three vendors your mother flagged. The registered agent is a shell service, but the tax contact traces to a condo in Miami."
"Whose?"
Riley hesitated.
"Caleb Price's sister."
Nathan's hands curled around the back of a chair.
"How much?"
"Total payments?"
"Yes."
"Eleven-point-eight million."
Nobody spoke.
David finally said, "That's enough to involve federal investigators."
Riley opened another file. "There's more. The expense descriptions were altered after approval. Someone with CFO-level access changed vendor classifications from consulting to property development."
Nathan stared at the screen. "Claire sits on the Foundation committee."
"She approved six of the transfers."
The room went cold.
Nathan walked to the window.
His whole marriage suddenly rearranged itself in his memory.
Claire volunteering to take over Foundation paperwork because he was too busy.
Claire insisting Caleb was the only executive who truly understood him.
Claire laughing whenever Evelyn questioned numbers at dinner.
She's old, Nathan. Let her enjoy retirement.
The front door opened.
Security chief Mark Delaney entered carrying a tablet.
"You asked me to pull archived exterior footage."
Nathan turned.
"Did you find something?"
Mark set the tablet on the table.
"This is from March fourteenth. The hallway camera was disabled, like your mother's recording said. But the garage camera was on a separate system."
He pressed play.
11:47 p.m.
Claire's SUV entered the garage.
Nathan remembered that night. He had been in Chicago.
The passenger door opened.
Caleb stepped out.
Claire met him beside the car.
They did not speak like business partners.
They kissed.
Long enough that nobody in the room could pretend it meant anything else.
Nathan watched without moving.
Elena had come halfway down the stairs and stopped.
Riley quietly closed her laptop.
Then the video changed.
2:13 a.m.
Caleb left the house carrying a leather document case that belonged to Evelyn.
Claire followed him to the garage.
Before he got into the car, she said something the camera microphone barely caught.
Mark increased the volume.
May you like
Claire's voice came through in a whisper.
"Once Nathan signs, we won't need to worry about Evelyn anymore."
