Chapter 9 - What Sophie Told the Stranger
The company linked to Helen was called Red Peak Capital.
Helen owned twelve percent.
That sounded damning until Priya explained the rest.
Red Peak was a legitimate investment fund.
Daniel’s brother controlled it.
Blue Alder money had entered one of Red Peak’s limited partnerships without Helen’s knowledge.
“There’s no evidence your mother received the stolen funds directly,” Priya said.
Michael exhaled.
He had not realized how badly he wanted Helen innocent.
“But Daniel could make it look like she did?”
“Very easily.”
Which meant Helen was not only protecting the company.
She might be protecting herself.
That afternoon, Dr. Patel asked Michael to come to her office.
Sophie was already there.
She sat cross-legged on a sofa drawing airplanes.
Nina waited until Sophie left with an assistant.
“She told me something important.”
Michael’s pulse accelerated.
“About Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
Nina opened her notes.
“I asked about the day at the airport. Sophie said Vanessa kept demanding something she called ‘Laura’s red file.’”
Michael frowned.
“Laura’s red file?”
“Sophie didn’t know what it meant.”
“The red thing.”
“What?”
“Sophie told me Vanessa searched her backpack for a red thing.”
Nina nodded.
“She also said Vanessa told her they were going to ‘start over somewhere nobody knew Uncle Michael.’”
Michael felt cold.
“Vanessa intended to take her?”
“Possibly.”
“But then left her.”
“Sophie said they argued in the SUV.”
“About what?”
Nina hesitated.
“She told Vanessa she had heard her talking to Daniel on the phone.”
Michael leaned forward.
“What did she hear?”
“Something about selling hangars and ‘before the audit catches us.’”
An eight-year-old’s memory was not financial evidence.
But it explained Vanessa’s panic.
Sophie had become a witness.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Nina’s expression changed.
“Sophie told me you once left her waiting at school for almost two hours.”
Michael looked down.
“I missed pickup.”
“She remembers.”
“I was in a meeting.”
“She knows.”
He clenched his jaw.
“What are you saying?”
“That children do not measure love by intention.”
The sentence stung.
Good.
It should.
“I was trying to keep the company alive.”
“And Vanessa picked her up.”
Michael remembered.
Vanessa had called furious.
He had apologized.
Then taken another meeting.
Nina continued.
“If you want Sophie to trust you, the answer is not proving Vanessa is worse.”
Michael nodded slowly.
“The answer is becoming better.”
“Yes.”
That evening Michael cooked dinner.
Badly.
Sophie watched him burn grilled cheese.
“You have to use butter.”
“I did.”
“You used olive oil.”
“That is basically butter.”
“No.”
For the first time since the airport, she laughed.
Michael smiled.
Then the doorbell rang.
A courier handed him an envelope.
Inside was a motion filed by Daniel’s attorneys seeking sanctions against Michael for accessing confidential company material after suspension.
Attached was a sworn statement.
Vanessa’s.
She claimed Michael had ordered her months earlier to use his credentials for undocumented company transfers.
Michael read the sentence twice.
She had shifted from witness to accuser.
If authorities believed her, the forged signatures could become his.
Rachel called ten minutes later.
“Federal investigators contacted the company.”
Michael stared at Sophie across the kitchen.
“For what?”
“Potential wire fraud.”
“Am I a target?”
“They didn’t say.”
“Which means yes.”
Rachel exhaled.
“Michael, from this moment forward, assume every text, email, phone call, and meeting may eventually be read by a prosecutor.”
He looked at Sophie.
She was scraping burned cheese from a plate.
His company was slipping away.
His reputation was collapsing.
May you like
His dead sister’s secrets were opening one by one.
And the woman who had helped create the fraud had just sworn under oath that Michael had ordered it.
