Chapter 6 - The Locked Accounting Room
The CFO’s name was Thomas Avery.
He had worked for Hale Development for twenty-one years.
I remembered him as a quiet man who rarely spoke during family events.
Grandmother trusted him.
My father tolerated him.
Preston mocked him.
That should have told me more than it did.
Thomas refused to send the records electronically.
He insisted we meet in person.
Rachel arranged for two independent auditors to join us.
I left Sophie with a hospital-approved caregiver and a police officer stationed outside her floor.
She hated watching me leave.
I hated leaving more.
But before I walked out, she caught my hand.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t let them say I lied.”
My heart broke.
I kissed her forehead.
“They never get to write your story again.”
Hale Development occupied six floors of a glass tower overlooking the Chicago River.
I had been inside the building hundreds of times.
That afternoon, it felt foreign.
Employees watched me cross the lobby.
Some looked afraid.
Others looked relieved.
Thomas met us on the twenty-third floor.
He carried a ring of keys.
“Your father ordered security to deactivate my access this morning.”
Rachel frowned.
“After receiving the suspension notice?”
“Yes.”
“That may be a problem for him.”
Thomas gave a tired smile.
“There are many problems for him.”
He led us past accounting.
Past payroll.
Past a conference room.
Then we reached a gray steel door at the end of a narrow hallway.
I had never noticed it before.
“What is this?”
“Archive storage.”
Thomas unlocked it.
The room beyond contained shelves of paper files.
Two desktop computers.
Several external drives.
And three large filing cabinets.
“Why isn’t this in the regular accounting system?”
“Because Mr. Hale created a separate approval process.”
“My father?”
Thomas nodded.
“Three years ago.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“I believe he was concealing payments.”
The auditors began photographing the room.
Rachel asked the obvious question.
“Why didn’t you report it?”
Thomas’s face tightened.
“I tried.”
“To whom?”
“Preston.”
A bitter laugh almost escaped me.
Thomas continued.
“When I raised discrepancies, he told me his father had authorized them.”
“And the board?”
“Your father controlled the agenda.”
“What about Grandmother?”
Thomas looked down.
“She became ill before I had enough evidence.”
A heavy silence settled over the room.
Then he opened the first filing cabinet.
Vendor agreements.
Invoices.
Wire confirmations.
Consulting contracts.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Northline Advisory.
Daniel’s company.
Not his friend’s.
His.
My husband had incorporated it two months after marrying me.
Rachel found the registration records.
Daniel was the sole member.
I felt physically sick.
“How much?”
Thomas had already calculated it.
“At least one point nine million dollars from Hale Development moved to Northline over thirty-four months.”
I gripped the table.
“For what services?”
“None that we can verify.”
Rachel looked at me.
“Evelyn.”
I knew what she was thinking.
Daniel had not joined the conspiracy because of the wedding.
He had been part of it for years.
Thomas opened another folder.
“This is worse.”
Inside were internal projections for a massive redevelopment on the lakefront.
The project required control of the company’s voting shares.
Preston had been secretly negotiating with an investment consortium.
The deal was worth hundreds of millions.
But without my fifty-one-percent voting trust, he could not guarantee approval.
“That’s why he needed the proxy.”
Rachel nodded.
“And why he was willing to pay Daniel.”
I stared at the numbers.
Two million dollars was not the reward.
It was the purchase price for my husband.
Thomas pulled one final document from the cabinet.
A handwritten memo.
My father’s handwriting.
Evelyn remains the obstacle.
Daniel believes emotional pressure involving the child will resolve her resistance.
My vision blurred.
Rachel reached for my arm.
I pulled away.
Not because I was angry with her.
Because I needed to stand on my own.
Thomas looked ashamed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
I folded the memo carefully.
“This is not your shame.”
My phone buzzed.
A security alert from my house appeared.
Front door opened.
I stared at the screen.
May you like
Daniel.
He was inside our home.
