Chapter 5 - Westbridge
Leonard refused to discuss Westbridge Properties over the phone.
That frightened Emily more than anything Ryan had said.
They met at Maya’s office that evening.
Leonard looked ten years older than he had that morning.
“What is Westbridge?” Emily asked.
“A real-estate holding company.”
“Owned by whom?”
Leonard hesitated.
“Originally? Your father.”
Emily stared.
“My father had another company?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t it in his estate?”
“Because he sold it before he died.”
“To whom?”
Leonard looked down.
“Ryan.”
The room went silent.
Emily stood.
“My father sold my husband a company and never told me?”
“For one dollar.”
“What?”
“Westbridge had liabilities. Thomas transferred it to Ryan as part of a restructuring.”
Emily’s anger rose.
“Why would Ryan use stolen Bennett money to buy something he already owned?”
Leonard sighed.
“Because Westbridge owns land.”
He explained.
Twelve years earlier, Thomas Bennett had bought twenty-six acres near a planned transportation corridor in Westchester County.
The project stalled.
The land sat nearly useless for years.
Then circumstances changed.
A major biotech manufacturer was now negotiating to build a campus nearby.
Property values had exploded.
“How much is the land worth?” Maya asked.
“Potentially twenty million.”
Emily stared at Leonard.
“Ryan owns twenty-million-dollar land my father gave him for one dollar?”
“Not exactly.”
Of course not.
Thomas’s transfer agreement contained a repurchase provision.
If Westbridge ever received more than $500,000 in capital from Bennett Home Group, Bennett could reclaim seventy percent of Westbridge for the amount originally paid.
One dollar.
Maya sat back.
“That explains the invoices.”
Leonard nodded.
“If Ryan funneled Bennett money into Westbridge indirectly, he may have triggered the repurchase clause.”
Emily frowned.
“Then why would he do that?”
“He probably believes the indirect transfers through Jessica’s company hide the source.”
Maya smiled grimly.
“But Naomi traced them.”
Emily finally understood the scale.
Ryan had not merely stolen cash.
He had used Bennett Home Group’s money to improve land that could make him rich.
Road surveys.
Environmental studies.
Legal approvals.
Consultants.
All hidden through Vale Meridian.
Ryan and Jessica were preparing to sell Westbridge.
“Do we know to whom?” Emily asked.
Leonard shook his head.
Maya’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
“Northstar’s lawyer responded.”
Northstar Capital had not known the power of attorney was disputed.
They were freezing further funding pending investigation.
Good news.
Until Maya kept reading.
“They’re reserving the right to demand immediate repayment of the $2.7 million already advanced.”
Emily felt her stomach drop.
“From Ryan?”
“From RKC. But the documents also identify Bennett Home Group as guarantor.”
“I never approved a corporate guarantee.”
“Ryan says the board did.”
“Did it?”
Maya looked at Leonard.
Leonard said, “There should be minutes.”
Naomi found them thirty minutes later.
The minutes showed a board meeting held six months earlier.
Emily was listed as attending remotely.
She supposedly voted yes.
“I was in Chicago that day,” Emily said.
“For business?” Maya asked.
“No. Sophie had a dance competition.”
Maya looked at her.
“Can you prove it?”
Emily almost laughed.
“I have two hundred photographs.”
The vote was fraudulent.
But there was a deeper problem.
The minutes bore electronic signatures from four directors.
Two told Maya they had signed a packet Ryan presented later and had not understood that the guarantee had been inserted.
The special committee now had evidence of possible fraud.
By morning, Bennett Home Group placed Ryan on paid administrative leave.
Emily should have felt victorious.
Instead, she found him waiting outside Sophie’s school.
He stood beside his car.
Emily’s entire body tightened.
Sophie had not yet been released.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I’m her father.”
“After what you did, you don’t get to appear without warning.”
Ryan looked exhausted.
“I came to talk.”
“Through lawyers.”
“Emily, please.”
She started walking away.
“Jessica is going to leave me.”
Emily stopped despite herself.
Ryan gave a humorless laugh.
“There. I finally found something you enjoy hearing.”
“I don’t care what Jessica does.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Because Jessica has every document.”
Emily turned.
Ryan continued.
“Westbridge contracts. Northstar files. Emails. Everything.”
“So testify.”
“I can’t.”
“Won’t.”
“If I give you Jessica, she gives prosecutors me.”
“You committed crimes together. That’s generally how consequences work.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
“Do you think I wanted this?”
Emily stared at him.
“You hit Sophie because she interrupted you kissing your accomplice.”
His face flinched.
“That is what you became.”
Ryan looked toward the school doors.
“I hate myself for that.”
“You should.”
His eyes flashed.
“You think your father was some saint protecting you? He used me.”
“Oh, don’t.”
“He transferred Westbridge because he wanted someone else carrying the liability. When the land became valuable, he tried to take it back.”
“He wrote a contract.”
“He set a trap.”
“And you decided theft was your escape.”
Ryan stepped toward her.
“I decided I was tired of being Thomas Bennett’s employee in my own marriage.”
Emily stared.
“Then you could have divorced me.”
“And walked away with what? Half the house? A settlement? You would still own the company. Your father would still own everything from the grave.”
The school doors opened.
Children began emerging.
Ryan lowered his voice.
“I built Bennett after Thomas got sick.”
“You were paid millions.”
“I wanted something that was mine.”
Emily finally saw it.
Not desperation.
Not love.
Entitlement.
Ryan believed every success around him should eventually belong to him.
Sophie appeared at the doors.
She saw Ryan.
Her smile disappeared.
Ryan noticed.
The pain on his face looked genuine.
He took one step forward.
Sophie immediately backed behind her teacher.
Emily walked toward her.
Ryan did not follow.
But as Emily took Sophie’s hand, Ryan called after her.
“Ask Leonard what Thomas planned to do with my Westbridge shares.”
Emily looked back.
Ryan’s expression was bitter.
“He wasn’t protecting you, Emily.”
May you like
A pause.
“He was planning to take the company from both of us.”
