Chapter 10 - THE EVIDENCE THEY PLANTED IN MY OFFICE
Federal investigators found $1.8 million in falsified transfers linked to my credentials.
They found encrypted files on my old office computer.
They found correspondence appearing to show that I had known about Monroe Strategic Solutions for months.
Every piece of evidence pointed toward me.
Except I had resigned before most of it was created.
That detail saved me.
Barely.
The agents questioned me for four hours.
Benjamin sat beside me.
Daniel was not allowed inside.
I told the truth.
Everything.
The hidden trust.
Ava.
Richard Vale.
The forged initials.
My father’s ledgers.
When the interview ended, Special Agent Melissa Warren closed her folder.
“Mrs. Reeves, you understand how serious this is.”
“Yes.”
“You also understand we can’t simply accept your explanation.”
“Yes.”
“But there is one problem with the evidence against you.”
I waited.
“The computer logs indicate you accessed certain files at 2:14 a.m. last Wednesday.”
“I was at my sister’s house.”
“We verified that.”
My heart lifted slightly.
“And the building security logs show someone entered Meridian using your executive badge.”
“I returned my access card.”
“Yes.”
“To Daniel’s desk.”
Agent Warren nodded.
“We found that too.”
Someone had taken my old card.
Then cloned my credentials.
The investigation had shifted.
I was no longer the obvious suspect.
I was bait.
Outside, Daniel waited beside the elevator.
When he saw me, he stood.
“You okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
We walked downstairs.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For which thing?”
“All of them.”
I stopped.
People moved around us in the lobby.
“I don’t need you to keep apologizing every five minutes.”
“What do you need?”
“Time.”
“I can give you that.”
“And honesty.”
“You have it.”
“All of it?”
He hesitated.
My expression changed.
Daniel closed his eyes.
“There’s one more thing.”
“Of course there is.”
“My first meeting with Richard wasn’t eighteen months ago.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Daniel.”
“It was fourteen years ago.”
Before Meridian.
Before our marriage.
Before I knew him.
My body went cold.
“What?”
“I was twenty-seven. I had an idea for a logistics company and no money. A professor introduced me to Richard.”
“Did he invest?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because he told me my idea wasn’t valuable enough.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Then I met you.”
I understood before he said it.
“My father.”
“Your father knew logistics. He helped refine the model.”
“You used him.”
“No.”
“Did you know who he was?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you find out?”
“Three months before his death.”
“And Richard?”
Daniel swallowed.
“He contacted me again.”
My voice dropped.
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing important.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I told him your father was helping us build Meridian.”
The lobby seemed to disappear.
My father died shortly afterward.
Daniel’s face broke.
“I have wondered for twelve years whether I put him in Richard’s path.”
I couldn’t breathe properly.
“You never told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of Richard?”
“Of you.”
That hurt worse.
He had hidden the possibility that his carelessness might have led Richard to my father.
I stepped away.
“Charlotte.”
“No.”
“I didn’t know—”
“No.”
I walked outside.
He did not follow.
For once, he understood.
I spent that evening with Rachel.
At 10:30, Agent Warren called.
“We arrested Ava Monroe.”
“For what?”
“Obstruction and financial fraud.”
My stomach sank.
“She was cooperating.”
“She was also still lying.”
“About what?”
“Monroe Strategic Solutions.”
I sat upright.
“What about it?”
“It wasn’t created two years ago.”
“When was it created?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
The exact year Daniel first met Richard.
Agent Warren continued.
“And Ava’s mother isn’t the original owner.”
“Who is?”
A pause.
“Your father.”
I stared into the dark room.
“That’s impossible.”
“We have incorporation records with James Bennett’s signature.”
I thought of my father’s warning.
Meridian should belong to the people who build it.
What if Monroe Strategic Solutions had originally been something else?
Something he created to fight Richard?
Then Agent Warren added another detail.
“There’s more. Your father had a business partner in that company.”
“Richard?”
“No.”
“Who?”
She told me.
I stopped breathing.
May you like
“Andrew Bennett.”
My uncle.
