Chapter 12 - The Four Million Dollar Door
Dennis Cole disappeared the next morning.
Not dramatically.
No abandoned car.
No mysterious passport.
He simply stopped answering calls.
His office was empty.
His home security system had been disconnected.
His attorney claimed not to know where he was.
Russell believed Dennis was still in Illinois.
Federal investigators became interested after reviewing the recording.
That changed everything.
What began as an internal corporate fraud case was becoming larger.
Banks received preservation notices.
Vendor accounts were examined.
Meridian projects were reviewed.
By Friday, three senior managers had been suspended.
Victor called me seventeen times.
I answered the eighteenth.
“Olivia.”
His voice sounded exhausted.
“What do you want?”
“To talk.”
“We are talking.”
“Not like this.”
“How?”
“As husband and wife.”
I looked out my office window.
“We are not husband and wife in any meaningful sense anymore.”
“You can’t erase seven years.”
“I’m not trying to.”
“Then meet me.”
“No.”
He exhaled hard.
“You think your father can protect you from everything?”
“That is an interesting question coming from a man asking me for help.”
Silence.
Then his voice softened.
“I made mistakes.”
“You committed crimes.”
“Allegedly.”
I almost smiled.
“There’s the Victor I remember.”
He ignored that.
“Kendra manipulated me.”
“No.”
“My mother pressured me.”
“No.”
“Dennis set this up.”
“No.”
His voice rose.
“You don’t know what happened.”
“I know exactly what happened.”
I leaned closer to the phone.
“Every time you had a choice, you chose the person you thought had less power.”
Victor went quiet.
“That is who you are.”
“Olivia.”
“You humiliated assistants.”
“You cheated vendors.”
“You mocked people who could not help your career.”
“You betrayed me because you believed I had nowhere to go.”
“And when you thought the company wasn’t watching, you stole from it.”
He breathed slowly.
“Your father gave me those opportunities.”
“Yes.”
“So he created this.”
“No.”
My voice hardened.
“He opened doors.”
“You decided what kind of man walked through them.”
Victor became silent.
Then he said something strange.
“Ask your father about Lake Mercer.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“Ask Arthur about the Lake Mercer acquisition.”
“Victor.”
“Ask him why Dennis knew about it before the board did.”
The line went dead.
For several seconds, I stared at my phone.
Then I called Russell.
He answered immediately.
“What is Lake Mercer?”
Silence.
That frightened me more than any answer could have.
“Russell?”
May you like
His voice became careful.
“You should speak to your father.”
