Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO KNEW EVERY PASSWORD
Arthur Bennett disappeared before the FBI reached his apartment.
His office had been cleaned.
His corporate devices erased.
His passport remained at home.
Meaning he had prepared another identity.
Arthur had been beside me since I was twenty-four.
He negotiated the loan that saved my first hotel.
He stood beside Grace when she sold her apartment.
He toasted our marriage.
He had held my father's coffin.
And apparently, he had been stealing from me for years.
Jonathan found the first clue.
The eighty million dollars he believed had gone to workers' families?
Only twelve million had.
The rest had been diverted.
Arthur used my father's secret as camouflage for theft.
Grace discovered it.
That was why she became dangerous.
The pregnancy created a second problem.
Under my trust, a child would trigger mandatory third-party audits of several family investment vehicles.
The same vehicles Arthur had been draining.
Our baby didn't threaten Vanessa's stock options.
Not really.
It threatened Arthur's freedom.
Grace had figured it out.
Then another memory hit me.
Six months earlier, Grace had asked:
“Do you trust Arthur?”
I had laughed.
“With my life.”
Her expression had gone strange.
I never asked why.
Now I knew.
The FBI searched Arthur's properties.
One contained a hidden room.
Inside were surveillance photographs.
Grace.
Me.
Jonathan.
Vanessa.
Even Nathan.
Arthur had been watching everyone.
Then they found Grace's missing prenatal vitamins.
One capsule remained.
Lab tests confirmed the medication.
Evidence.
Real evidence.
Vanessa would face charges for her role.
Lauren too.
Arthur faced attempted murder.
But he was still missing.
For four months, Grace remained gone.
I didn't search for her.
I did something far harder.
I changed.
Not publicly.
Public apologies are cheap when you're rich enough to buy airtime.
I resigned as CEO temporarily.
Cooperated with every investigation.
Sold the Dubai villa.
Sold the apartment I'd rented for Vanessa.
Transferred the proceeds into a maternal health foundation anonymously.
I started therapy.
I hated it.
Then I started telling the truth.
I had not cheated because Grace failed me.
I cheated because admiration had become a drug and Vanessa gave it to me without demanding that I examine myself.
Grace remembered the man I had promised to be.
Vanessa admired the man I pretended I already was.
I had chosen the easier mirror.
One evening, Marcus found me eating alone in the penthouse.
At Grace's seat.
“You know she may never come back.”
“Yes.”
“Even if Arthur is caught.”
“I know.”
“You okay with that?”
“No.”
He waited.
“But she gets to choose.”
Marcus nodded.
Then handed me an envelope.
“No tracking. No surveillance. Came through regular mail.”
Grace's handwriting.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Inside was one page.
Richard,
I heard you stopped looking.
Thank you.
For the first time in a long time, you listened.
Our surviving baby is healthy.
I read that sentence until the words blurred.
Then I continued.
I'm not coming home.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
But there is something you need to know before our child is born.
Arthur Bennett isn't only stealing from you.
He has been stealing from me since before we married.
I frowned.
How?
Grace had almost no separate wealth.
Then I reached the final line.
Ask Arthur why my father's name is on the original incorporation papers for Hayes International.
I stared at it.
Hayes International.
My empire.
May you like
The company I had always believed belonged to me.
Apparently, Grace's father had helped create it.
