Chapter 2 - THE SECRET COMPANY
Khloe stopped pretending to be confused.
That frightened me more than panic would have.
Carter lowered his phone.
“Samantha, go home.”
I laughed softly.
“You’re giving orders again?”
“This is company business.”
“I invested one and a half billion dollars in this company.”
“You were repaid.”
“No, Carter.”
I stepped closer.
“My family trust received preferred equity, patent security, and governance rights.”
That caught the executives’ attention.
Most of them apparently knew nothing about the details of Sterling’s rescue.
Neither did Khloe.
Her eyes flickered.
I looked at Carter.
“Now tell me about Bennett Strategic Partners.”
He went pale.
Khloe interrupted.
“It’s my consulting firm.”
“For what?”
“Executive support.”
“Twenty-seven million dollars’ worth?”
Her mouth closed.
Daniel sent me the payment history fifteen minutes later after independent counsel confirmed I had information rights under the rescue agreement.
Bennett Strategic Partners had received twelve payments over fourteen months.
Total:
$27.4 million.
Carter had approved every one.
The invoices were vague.
International strategy.
Executive coordination.
Market intelligence.
Special projects.
But the company address was a mailbox in Delaware.
No staff.
No website.
No operating history.
Then I found the incorporation date.
Six weeks before Khloe officially became Carter’s secretary.
Interesting.
I called our family attorney, Marcus Hale.
“Can you trace ownership?”
“Already doing it.”
“Khloe owns it?”
“Eighty percent.”
“And the other twenty?”
He paused.
“That’s why I called you.”
A corporate trust controlled the remaining interest.
Marcus sent me the filing.
Beneficial owner:
Evelyn Sterling.
My mother-in-law.
The same woman who had told me to show consideration while another woman sat beside my husband.
I looked back toward the jet.
Evelyn was now speaking urgently with Khloe.
Carter stood apart from them.
That separation interested me.
Maybe he wasn’t the only person hiding something.
Then Daniel called again.
“We found where Bennett Strategic sent the money.”
“Where?”
“Mostly investments.”
“In what?”
“One private fund.”
Marcus pulled up the name while Daniel spoke.
Sterling Legacy Fund III.
I frowned.
“There is no Sterling Legacy Fund III.”
“I know.”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“But someone created one.”
I opened the ownership page.
The managing partner wasn’t Carter.
May you like
It was Evelyn.
And according to the capital records, my mother-in-law had quietly accumulated enough Sterling stock through that fund to become the company’s third-largest private shareholder.
