Chapter 6 - THE THREAT MARCUS SENT TO MY OFFICE
Marcus contacted my employer the following Monday.
He didn't call me.
He didn't contact Rebecca.
He sent a formal letter to the managing partner of the compliance law firm where I worked.
The letter accused me of improperly retaining confidential company records and using my relationship with Julian to interfere with a potential acquisition.
It demanded that my firm investigate me.
I was furious.
But Rebecca had prepared me for the possibility that Marcus would attack my credibility once the financial records began attracting attention.
We responded through counsel.
My firm arranged an independent review of the materials I'd retained, how I'd obtained them, my obligations as a former employee, and the circumstances under which the records could properly be used or disclosed.
I cooperated fully.
I had no intention of turning the investigation into a personal contest over who could tell the more dramatic story.
Marcus had accused me of misconduct.
I wanted that allegation examined properly.
That evening, I told Julian what had happened.
He listened while I spoke.
Then he asked:
"What do you need from me?"
It was such a simple question.
But during my first marriage, nobody had ever asked it.
Marcus would have called his attorneys, made three angry phone calls, and told me he'd solved everything before I'd even explained what I wanted.
Julian waited.
"I need you to remain separate from this."
He nodded.
"Then I will."
"And I need Rhodes Capital's acquisition process to be independent of anything involving me."
"It already is. I've also asked our board to review the conflict safeguards and whether I should step back from further decisions concerning Mercer."
I reached for his hand.
"Thank you."
He squeezed my fingers.
Then Emma appeared in the doorway wearing one of Julian's oversized T-shirts.
"Daddy, Mommy, you're being too quiet."
Julian smiled.
"Are we?"
"Yes. I can't sleep if you're sad."
My heart tightened.
I pulled her onto my lap.
"We're not sad, sweetheart. We're dealing with some grown-up things."
She thought about that.
"Can grown-up things wait until tomorrow?"
Julian laughed softly.
"Some of them can."
We put Emma to bed together.
Later, when the house was quiet, I opened the encrypted drive again.
I wanted to understand exactly what happened to our joint account before the divorce.
Marcus had withdrawn nearly all the money shortly before filing.
At the time, his explanation was that he'd transferred it to cover urgent business expenses and that the marital finances could be addressed later.
The divorce had been emotionally exhausting, and I hadn't had access to all the underlying transactions.
Now I examined the archived bank statement alongside Natalie's payment schedule.
One transfer stood out.
Ninety-four thousand dollars.
The amount had moved from our joint account to a business account associated with Mercer Financial Systems.
Two days later, a similar amount appeared in a payment to Hart Advisory Group.
That sequence didn't conclusively establish where every dollar ended up.
But it raised another question that deserved investigation.
Marcus hadn't simply emptied our joint account and kept the money.
He might have used our marital funds to support the same questionable vendor relationship I'd been investigating.
Then Rebecca sent me another document Natalie had uncovered.
It was an old email from Leonard Mercer to Marcus.
Evelyn is becoming a liability. If she won't accept the compliance explanation, remove her from the process.
The email was dated two days before I found Chloe in our kitchen.
I stared at the screen.
May you like
For five years, I'd believed Marcus's affair and the financial problems were two separate betrayals.
Now I was beginning to suspect they had become intertwined long before the divorce.
