Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN THEY PLANNED TO BLAME
Claire read the forensic report in silence.
Daniel stood across from her in the accountant's conference room.
The report documented twenty-seven approvals under Claire's old credentials.
The originating device had been Daniel's retired executive laptop.
The invoices totaled $613,400.
Claire finally looked up.
“They were going to blame me.”
“Yes.”
“For six hundred thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
“And you would've believed them.”
Daniel didn't answer.
Claire laughed.
It was a small, broken sound.
“You would've.”
“I don't know.”
“Don't insult me.”
He lowered his eyes.
Six months earlier, if Mark had shown Daniel a report proving Claire's username approved fraudulent vendors, Daniel would have believed it.
Worse, he would have felt vindicated.
Claire had warned him about Mark.
He had wanted her warning to be jealousy.
If the evidence had made Claire look dishonest, it would have allowed Daniel to believe every choice he made afterward was justified.
“I would've wanted to believe it,” he said.
Claire's eyes filled.
She looked away before the tears fell.
“That might be worse.”
Daniel sat down.
The accountant, Paul Stein, quietly left the room.
For several minutes, neither Daniel nor Claire spoke.
Finally Daniel said, “I can't undo what I did.”
“No.”
“I know apologizing doesn't fix it.”
“No.”
“I am sorry.”
Claire pressed two fingers against her forehead.
“Do you know what I hated most?”
Daniel waited.
“Not Vanessa.”
He looked up.
“I hated that after you left, I kept wondering if you were right.”
“Claire.”
“I had given up my hospital finance job when Evelyn had the stroke because your travel schedule was insane and Noah was twelve. Then your company nearly ran out of cash, so I spent nights fixing billing while Evelyn slept.”
Her voice stayed quiet.
“That was my choice. I loved you. I loved her. I loved our family.”
Daniel couldn't look away.
“But after a while, everything I did became evidence against me. If I asked where you were, I was controlling. If I questioned Mark, I was interfering. If I worried about your mother, I was obsessive.”
She swallowed.
“And when you left, part of me wondered whether maybe I had become unbearable.”
Daniel's chair scraped as he stood.
Claire raised a hand.
“Don't touch me.”
He stopped.
“I wasn't going to—”
“Yes, you were.”
He sat again.
“I am sorry.”
Claire looked through the glass wall at Raleigh traffic moving below.
“Don't say it until you can live with the fact that I may never do anything with it.”
Daniel nodded.
The door opened.
Paul returned holding another report.
“We found the ownership of Redwood Advisory.”
Daniel sat straighter.
“The wire recipient.”
Paul nodded.
“Redwood is owned through two LLCs, but the beneficial ownership declaration filed with its bank lists Mark Tully.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Daniel asked, “Can we prove it?”
“We can prove the entity disclosed him to the bank. Counsel can subpoena or request records if this becomes litigation.”
“So the wire was going to Mark.”
“Ultimately, yes.”
“Why use my credentials?”
“To make it look like you approved it.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
Mark wasn't simply stealing.
He was constructing exits.
Claire's old account for vendor fraud.
Daniel's device for the major transfer.
Evelyn's supposed incapacity for company control.
Everyone had a role.
Everyone except Mark.
Daniel drove back to Hale Specialty Packaging that afternoon.
Renee met him in the lobby.
“He's here.”
“Mark?”
“He used his badge.”
“His badge is disabled.”
“He came in with Larry from shipping.”
Daniel walked toward the executive hallway.
Mark stood outside his office carrying a cardboard box.
Two security employees watched him.
Mark smiled.
“Relax. I'm collecting personal property.”
Daniel looked into the box.
A photograph of Mark's daughters.
Golf trophies.
A framed UNC diploma.
“You're not supposed to be here.”
“Then call the cops.”
Daniel didn't move.
Mark stepped closer.
“You really want forty-two employees watching their CEO have his best friend arrested because his ex-wife is feeding him conspiracy theories?”
“Claire isn't my ex-wife yet.”
Mark laughed.
“There it is again.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Why did Vanessa ask Renee for evidence my mother was incompetent?”
Mark's smile vanished.
“I don't know.”
“Why did Redwood Advisory receive a wire request from my credentials?”
Nothing.
“Why did you know Vanessa before I did?”
Mark leaned toward him.
“Because I introduced you.”
Daniel stopped breathing for a second.
The hallway seemed to disappear.
Mark continued.
“You were miserable. She was single. I thought you'd have fun.”
“You told me you'd never met her.”
“I panicked.”
“Why?”
“Look at you.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You used her.”
Mark shook his head.
“You used her.”
Daniel almost hit him.
He didn't.
That restraint felt like the first useful decision he had made in months.
“Get out.”
Mark picked up his box.
At the elevator, he turned.
“You think Vanessa did all this because I told her to?”
Daniel said nothing.
Mark smiled faintly.
“You still don't know who you brought into your house.”
The elevator doors closed.
That evening, Vanessa finally answered Daniel's call.
Her voice sounded tired.
“You accused me of abusing your mother.”
“I watched you.”
“You watched thirty seconds.”
“I watched enough.”
“Did Claire tell you what to think?”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Where are you?”
“Not your business.”
“Did Mark introduce us?”
Silence.
“Vanessa.”
“He told me you were unhappy.”
“When?”
“Before we met.”
Daniel gripped the phone.
“Were you involved with Carolina Market Strategies?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mark pay you?”
“I did consulting work.”
“To do what?”
Another silence.
Then Vanessa said, “I didn't sign up for what this became.”
Daniel's pulse changed.
“What does that mean?”
“You think Mark's trying to take your company.”
“He is.”
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“He's trying to sell it.”
Daniel went still.
“To who?”
Vanessa didn't answer.
“Vanessa.”
“You should ask why he needed your mother's shares before Monday.”
The line disconnected.
Five minutes later, Daniel received an email from an unknown address.
No message.
One attachment.
A two-page term sheet.
NORTHLINE INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS – PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF HALE SPECIALTY PACKAGING.
Purchase price: $14.8 million.
Closing authorization required: holders of at least 66⅔ percent of voting interests.
Daniel owned fifty percent.
Mark owned twenty.
Vanessa's forged transfer would give her shell company twenty.
Together, Mark and Vanessa would have forty.
Evelyn's thirty would give them seventy.
If they could control her vote.
May you like
At the bottom of the term sheet was a proposed closing date.
Monday.
