Chapter 10 - What Marcus Had Been Buying
Claire stopped thinking like a wife.
She started thinking like an executive chair.
She asked Daniel Cho to form an independent special committee.
She asked Maya to send the High Crest records to outside forensic accountants.
She asked Helen to freeze any attempt to activate Marcus’s successor authority.
And she stopped answering Marcus entirely.
That made him reckless.
Friday morning, High Crest’s bank records arrived in response to a subpoena in a related civil filing.
The money did not disappear into one account.
It fractured.
Consulting payments went to six subcontractors.
Three appeared legitimate.
Two were questionable.
The sixth was a Nevada entity called Morrow Advisory.
Morrow transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars into a family trust.
Beneficiary:
Margaret Reed.
Claire sat perfectly still.
“How much?” she asked.
Maya checked.
“About one-point-eight million over eighteen months.”
“And the rest?”
“Still tracing it.”
“Red Summit?”
“Same law firm. Same Nevada manager.”
Claire rubbed her temples.
“They used Bellamy Alpine money to fund the buyer trying to purchase Bellamy Alpine property.”
“That is one possible interpretation. Let the accountants say it.”
Claire gave Maya an exhausted look.
“You would make a terrible revenge partner.”
“I’m an excellent lawyer because I prevent clients from turning suspicion into defamation.”
By afternoon, another thread emerged.
Dr. Peter Lang, the second physician who supposedly evaluated Claire, contacted investigators through counsel.
He admitted signing a general executive-wellness letter prepared by Marcus’s office.
He claimed he had been told Claire had already been evaluated by Dr. Voss.
He had never examined Claire.
His statement had later been reformatted into an “incapacity certification.”
His electronic signature was genuine.
The document around it was not.
“That destroys the second medical opinion,” Claire said.
“It damages it severely.”
“Can you ever just say destroys?”
“No.”
Claire almost smiled.
The smile vanished when Daniel called.
“Sam is changing his story.”
Claire leaned forward.
“How?”
“He says you verbally approved High Crest.”
“I did not.”
“He says you instructed management to keep strategic consulting discreet because lenders might misunderstand.”
“That’s a lie.”
“There are no recordings.”
“There are forged signatures.”
“He says you authorized use of your signature stamp.”
“For routine filings. Not secret consulting agreements.”
Daniel sounded miserable.
“Claire, the board is scared. Lenders are asking questions. Employees saw the custody story. Marcus is telling everyone this is marital revenge.”
“Then ask him who owns Red Summit.”
“I did.”
“What did he say?”
“That he doesn’t know.”
Claire laughed coldly.
“His mother’s trust owns part of it.”
“I know.”
“Then why is he still CEO?”
“Because removing both senior leaders during refinancing could trigger defaults.”
There it was.
Power.
Not truth.
Boards feared disruption more than corruption until corruption became undeniable.
Claire walked into the small kitchenette.
Ethan sat with Sophie making animal shapes from toast.
The pantry trauma had changed him in ways Claire had begun to notice.
He asked before taking food.
Every time.
“Can I?”
Even in Claire’s own kitchen.
Even fruit left specifically for him.
Claire knelt.
“You never have to ask if you’re hungry.”
Ethan held up half a strawberry.
“Mine?”
“Yours.”
He smiled.
Claire stood and found Sophie watching her.
“We fix this,” Sophie said.
Claire nodded.
“Yes.”
That evening, Hannah called with another discovery from her archived drive.
“Marcus accessed your office security system at 7:42 p.m. the night the High Crest framework was signed.”
“So?”
“You were in Salt Lake City.”
Claire remembered.
A resort acquisition conference.
Hannah continued.
“There was an old interior camera in your study. Local storage. Marcus thought it had been decommissioned.”
“Did it record him?”
“I’m sending a clip.”
Claire opened it.
The grainy video showed Marcus entering her office alone.
He opened a drawer.
Removed the secure signature token.
Sat at Claire’s desk.
Twenty minutes later he left.
There was no view of the computer screen.
But the timestamp matched the creation of the High Crest agreement.
Maya whispered, “That’s strong.”
Claire stared at the image of the man she had slept beside for eleven years.
Then she noticed something else.
Before Marcus left the office, someone appeared in the doorway.
Sam Greene.
The CFO.
May you like
He looked directly at Marcus.
And instead of asking what he was doing there, Sam closed the door behind himself.
