Chapter 4 - THE WEDDING STOPPED AT THE BALLROOM DOORS
At 12:05 p.m., there were ninety-four missed calls on my phone.
The wedding was supposed to begin at two.
I was not there.
I was at Bennett Facility Solutions reviewing audit records while three attorneys, two forensic accountants, and Vale Grand’s compliance chief worked through invoices.
Then Lauren called.
I answered.
“Claire.”
She sounded breathless.
“What?”
“They stopped guests from entering the ballroom.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why?”
“Richard ordered security to hold the ceremony.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“What would you like me to do?”
“Mom says you can stop it.”
“I can stop the audit.”
“Yes!”
“I’m not going to.”
Lauren went quiet.
Then:
“I didn’t know about DMR.”
“I believe you.”
“I didn’t know they told people you were dead either.”
That hurt differently.
“You knew I wasn’t invited.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Lauren started crying.
“I told myself it wasn’t my fight.”
There it was.
The comfortable sibling’s favorite sentence.
I was not ready to deal with it.
“Lauren, I need to go.”
“Wait.”
“What?”
“I found something.”
Her husband Nathan had been helping Dad locate loan paperwork after learning about the home-equity line.
Inside Dad’s desk, Lauren found a contract.
Not DMR.
A personal-services agreement.
Between Daniel and my parents.
My parents agreed to receive $6,000 per month from DMR Strategies.
For “administrative and relationship-development support.”
“That’s seventy-two thousand a year.”
I said.
“Were they actually working?”
“I don’t know.”
Evan took the document from Lauren’s email.
Then looked at me.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“Payments started eleven months ago.”
DMR had paid Mom and Dad more than $60,000.
My parents had spent Thanksgiving? No, different story. They had mocked my work while accepting money Daniel extracted from hotels serviced by my company.
The irony was almost surgical.
At 12:18, Richard called.
“I’ve canceled the ceremony.”
Not postponed.
Canceled.
“Richard—”
“This is not because of you.”
“I know.”
“I want that clear.”
“Thank you.”
“Daniel falsified disclosures to our company and my family.”
He sounded furious.
“And Sophia?”
“She made the decision.”
Good.
Not grandfather.
Not audit.
Sophia.
Then Richard said:
“I need you at the hotel.”
“No.”
“I understand why you would refuse.”
“I have no desire to walk into my brother’s canceled wedding.”
“Neither do I.”
That almost made me smile.
“Then why?”
“Because the audit found a payment that concerns me.”
“How much?”
“One hundred twenty thousand.”
“Recipient?”
“Bennett Facility Solutions.”
I frowned.
“That doesn’t sound concerning.”
“It would not be.”
Pause.
“If it had reached your company.”
My pulse changed.
The payment had been redirected.
Someone created a bank account using a shortened version of my company name:
Bennett Facilities Solution.
Singular.
One missing “s.”
The $120,000 hotel payment intended for my company landed there.
Account owner:
DMR Strategies.
May you like
Daniel had not merely invented consulting fees.
He had diverted money that was supposed to come to me.
