Chapter 4 - What Emily Knew
Emily had discovered the first suspicious transfer six months earlier.
It had looked harmless.
A consulting payment.
Four hundred eighty thousand dollars.
The recipient was a company called Meridian Advisory Group.
Michael had approved dozens of consulting firms during Carter Dynamics’ expansion.
But Emily recognized the mailing address.
It belonged to a vacant building her father had once owned.
She checked another payment.
Then another.
Nine transfers.
More than eleven million dollars.
All connected to shell companies.
All approved through Daniel’s office.
Michael listened without interrupting.
Emily continued.
“I asked Sophia about Meridian.”
“Why Sophia?”
“She was using the same address on paperwork for one of her foundations.”
Michael’s face tightened.
“What did she say?”
“She laughed.”
Emily stared at the ceiling.
“Then she told me married women should spend less time inspecting their husbands’ businesses.”
Michael closed his eyes.
He could hear Sophia saying it.
Emily continued.
“Two days later, my laptop disappeared.”
Michael opened his eyes.
“You told me it was stolen from your car.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Why didn’t you report Sophia?”
“Because I didn’t have proof.”
She looked at him.
“And because you always defended her.”
Michael flinched.
Emily turned away.
“That’s why I went to the FBI.”
Michael lowered his voice.
“What’s in the red folder?”
“Original bank statements.”
“What else?”
“Copies of Daniel’s authorization codes.”
“Anything involving Sophia?”
Emily hesitated.
“One signature.”
Michael leaned forward.
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Michael stared at her.
Emily continued.
“It appeared on three international wire transfers.”
“I never signed them.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because you were in Singapore the day two of them were authorized.”
Michael stood.
“Then they forged my signature.”
Emily looked at him.
“That’s what I believed.”
“Believed?”
She reached for the water.
Michael helped without touching her hand.
Emily drank.
“Then I found the video.”
Michael stopped.
“What video?”
“An internal security recording from Daniel’s office.”
Michael’s heart pounded.
“What was on it?”
“Sophia.”
He said nothing.
“She entered Daniel’s office at 2:13 in the morning.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
“What was she doing?”
“Opening his safe.”
Michael stared at his wife.
“And Daniel?”
“He arrived twenty minutes later.”
“So they’re working together.”
Emily looked at him carefully.
“That’s what I thought.”
Michael noticed the wording again.
“You keep saying that.”
Emily said nothing.
“Emily.”
She looked at him.
“There was a third person.”
Michael’s stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“The camera never showed their face.”
“What did it show?”
“A man entering Daniel’s office.”
“How do you know it was a man?”
“Height.”
“Anything else?”
Emily’s eyes held his.
“He was wearing your coat.”
Michael went completely still.
“My coat?”
“The navy overcoat with the silver collar pin.”
Michael remembered it immediately.
It had been custom-made in London.
Only one existed.
“I still have that coat.”
“I know.”
“Then somebody borrowed it.”
“Or copied it.”
Michael stepped toward the window.
“This is insane.”
Emily’s voice softened.
“That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
Michael turned.
“You thought I might be involved.”
Emily did not answer.
That silence hurt more than an accusation.
Michael whispered.
“Did you?”
Emily looked toward the bruise on her arm from the fall.
Then toward the bruise on her cheek from him.
“I didn’t know who I could trust.”
Michael looked away.
His phone rang.
Thomas.
Michael answered.
“We opened the flash drive.”
“And?”
Thomas sounded disturbed.
“You need to come downstairs.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
“Thomas.”
“There are forty-six video files.”
Michael looked at Emily.
“What kind of videos?”
Thomas paused.
“Recordings from inside your house.”
Michael stopped breathing.
“The staircase?”
“Not just the staircase.”
May you like
Thomas lowered his voice.
“Your bedroom.”
