Chapter 12 - Rebecca’s Payment
Emily did not confront Rebecca immediately.
She learned.
Three months earlier she would have stormed into the office.
Now she asked the forensic accountant for documents.
The payment was real.
$300,000 from Northstar to Sloan Investigative Counsel LLC.
Rebecca’s firm.
One payment.
Two years earlier.
No obvious invoice.
Emily felt betrayed all over again.
She arranged a meeting.
Rebecca walked in and saw the bank record on the table.
Her expression changed.
“You found that.”
“I did.”
“You should have asked me earlier.”
“You should have told me earlier.”
Rebecca sat.
“That payment funded an undercover forensic review.”
“Using Northstar money?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Thomas controlled the account at that point and wanted to trace where the funds were actually going.”
Emily stared.
“That sounds convenient.”
“It is also documented.”
Rebecca produced an engagement letter.
Thomas hired Sloan Investigative Counsel to conduct a confidential fraud examination.
The $300,000 payment was deliberately sent through Northstar so Grant would believe it was another vendor payment.
Emily’s anger sharpened.
“You helped Dad hide an investigation from the board.”
“Yes.”
“Is that ethical?”
Rebecca paused.
“Legally permitted in the structure we used? Yes. Good governance? Debatable.”
“That sounds like lawyer language.”
“It is.”
“Did Olivia know?”
“No.”
“So Dad did it again.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Yes.”
Secretly solving secrecy.
Thomas had learned the lesson only after making it repeatedly.
Emily hated that.
She also trusted Rebecca more because she did not pretend otherwise.
“What did the investigation find?”
Rebecca opened a file.
It was the first complete reconstruction of Grant and Diane’s financial relationship.
Northstar payments.
D.H. Interiors.
Hotel records.
Property searches.
Grant had purchased a condominium through an LLC.
Diane had used it.
Emails suggested they planned to live there after Thomas died.
Emily stared.
“They were planning a life.”
“Yes.”
“And still trying to keep Dad’s house.”
“The house was worth approximately four-point-one million dollars.”
Money.
Not sentiment.
Rebecca continued.
“Thomas planned to remove Grant from management and file civil claims. He died before the board process began.”
“Did Grant know?”
“Thomas confronted him too early.”
Emily remembered Rebecca warning her against that same mistake.
“Dad did what I did.”
“Yes.”
“He told Grant before the evidence was secure.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Grant started moving records.”
Thomas’s mistakes had become lessons because Rebecca had lived through them with him.
Emily understood why her father chose her.
Then Rebecca said, “There’s something else I should have disclosed.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Thomas offered me a trustee position.”
“When?”
“Six weeks before he died.”
“In my trust?”
“Yes.”
“Did you accept?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I was already his investigation lawyer. Too many roles.”
Emily exhaled.
Good.
Then Rebecca continued.
“He named another independent trustee.”
“Who?”
“Olivia Chen.”
Emily smiled slightly.
That made sense.
Then Rebecca’s expression darkened.
“But the document never reached the trust company.”
“Lydia?”
“Possibly.”
Another missing amendment.
Another intercepted document.
Without the amendment, the current interim voting trustee over Thomas’s company shares was Daniel Mercer.
Emily stared.
“Mercer controls Dad’s sixty percent?”
“Temporarily.”
“Does Grant know?”
“Yes.”
“Can Mercer vote the shares in the recapitalization?”
“Yes.”
Emily’s stomach dropped.
The shareholder meeting was four days away.
If Mercer voted Thomas’s sixty-percent block, he could determine whether Grant’s proposed recapitalization succeeded.
Mercer had already admitted his office was compromised.
And nobody knew where his loyalties actually lay.
Emily called him.
“I need to know how you intend to vote.”
Mercer answered calmly.
“As fiduciary, I cannot promise a vote based on beneficiary preference.”
“I’m the beneficiary.”
“You are one beneficiary of related structures. I must consider the governing instrument.”
“Grant is trying to dilute Dad’s shares.”
“He argues capital is necessary.”
“The audit says he stole millions.”
“And the company still has liquidity needs.”
Emily’s voice rose.
“Whose side are you on?”
Mercer went silent.
Then said something she did not expect.
“That is precisely the wrong question.”
He was right.
She hated that too.
A trustee was not supposed to be on her side.
He was supposed to follow the trust.
Emily hung up.
Rebecca said, “You’re learning the hardest part of inheritance.”
“What?”
“People who protect your interests are not always people who obey you.”
The shareholder meeting was approaching.
Grant had lost the CEO office.
But if Mercer approved the recapitalization, Grant could regain control through new investors.
Emily had evidence.
She had truth.
May you like
What she did not yet have was authority.
And Grant knew it.
