Chapter 6 - The Missing Millions
Rebecca spent the afternoon inside a conference room with auditors.
Every hour revealed another secret.
Daniel had approved payments to companies that did not appear to perform legitimate services.
He had reimbursed personal travel as business expenses.
He had used company funds for Chloe’s jewelry.
Most disturbing of all, almost two million dollars had disappeared through a chain of transfers involving three shell companies.
Rebecca stared at the numbers.
“Where did the final transfer go?”
The forensic accountant shook his head.
“We’re tracing it.”
“Could Daniel have hidden it overseas?”
“It’s possible.”
Rebecca leaned back.
For years, she had believed Daniel’s worst flaw was arrogance.
Now she wondered whether arrogance had simply hidden something uglier.
Caroline entered.
“Chloe agreed to meet.”
Rebecca looked up.
“That quickly?”
“She’s scared.”
“She should be.”
Caroline sat opposite her.
“I don’t think she knew everything.”
Rebecca’s expression cooled.
“She knew he was married.”
“I’m not defending her.”
“Good.”
Rebecca closed the folder.
“What does she know?”
“Enough to help.”
An hour later, Chloe entered the conference room.
Without Daniel beside her, she looked younger.
Less glamorous.
Less certain.
Rebecca said nothing.
Chloe sat.
For several uncomfortable seconds, neither woman spoke.
Finally, Chloe looked down.
“I know you hate me.”
Rebecca’s voice was calm.
“I don’t know you well enough to hate you.”
That answer seemed to hurt more.
Chloe nodded.
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve whatever consequences belong to your choices.”
Chloe looked at her.
“But Daniel’s choices are Daniel’s.”
Rebecca folded her hands.
“So tell me about them.”
Chloe opened her handbag.
She removed a tablet.
“Daniel gave me this eight months ago.”
“What’s on it?”
“Messages.”
“Documents.”
“Photos.”
“Some financial records.”
Caroline leaned forward.
“Why do you have financial records?”
“Daniel would send files and ask me to forward them from different email accounts.”
Rebecca stared at her.
“Didn’t that seem suspicious?”
“At first, no.”
Chloe swallowed.
“Later, yes.”
“Why did you continue?”
“Because I was stupid.”
Rebecca said nothing.
Chloe corrected herself.
“No.”
“That’s too easy.”
“I continued because I liked what he gave me.”
“The trips.”
“The clothes.”
“The attention.”
“And I kept telling myself his marriage was already over.”
Rebecca’s expression remained unreadable.
“Was it?”
Chloe lowered her eyes.
“No.”
She pushed the tablet forward.
“There’s something else.”
Rebecca touched the screen.
A photograph appeared.
Daniel was standing beside a man Rebecca recognized.
Victor Hale.
A commercial lender who had once refused Carter Development financing.
The date stamp was six months earlier.
Rebecca frowned.
“What am I looking at?”
Chloe opened a message thread.
Daniel had written about a private transaction called Phoenix.
Caroline read silently.
Her expression changed.
Rebecca noticed.
“What?”
Caroline turned the tablet.
Daniel’s message said that once “the wife problem” was handled, Phoenix would move forward.
Rebecca read it twice.
“What is Phoenix?”
Chloe shook her head.
“I never knew.”
The accountant entered the room carrying a folder.
“I think we do.”
He placed a document on the table.
“Phoenix was a proposed sale.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Of what?”
He met her eyes.
“Carter Development.”
Rebecca froze.
Daniel had been planning to sell the company.
Without board approval.
Without telling Rebecca.
Without telling their son.
Without telling most shareholders.
Chloe whispered.
“How much?”
The accountant answered.
“One hundred and eighty million dollars.”
Rebecca slowly looked at the message again.
The wife problem.
For the first time, the phrase did not sound like divorce.
May you like
It sounded like an obstacle Daniel had been planning to remove.
And Rebecca suddenly wanted to know exactly how far he had been willing to go.
