Chapter 9 - SOMEONE WAS STILL MOVING THE MONEY
Every face turned toward David’s hand.
His phone was right there.
He unlocked it.
Nothing.
“No transfer.”
Richard held out his palm.
“Give me the phone.”
David hesitated.
That hesitation destroyed whatever trust his father still had.
“Now.”
David handed it over.
The CFO remained on speaker.
“The request came through Mr. Langley’s authenticated account.”
David shook his head.
“I didn’t send it.”
For once, I believed him.
Because during the previous fifteen minutes, David had been standing directly in front of us.
Something else was happening.
Natalie called me.
I answered immediately.
“Check the laptop upstairs,” she said.
“Why?”
“The login originated from your home network.”
Everyone heard her.
Rebecca ran toward the stairs.
David followed.
So did Richard.
I stayed where I was for one second, suddenly aware of Elena beside me.
She looked shattered.
“Claire.”
I turned.
“I’m sorry.”
Not enough.
But real.
“I believed him.”
“So did I.”
We went upstairs.
David’s laptop sat open on the desk.
The bedroom camera stared silently from the bookshelf.
Rebecca looked at the screen.
“Someone logged in remotely.”
David frowned.
“Who has access?”
A strange look passed between him and Martha.
There it was again.
Another secret.
Richard noticed too.
“Martha?”
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
My patience disappeared.
“Everything happens here tonight.”
Martha sat on the edge of the bed.
Then she said a name.
“Thomas.”
David closed his eyes.
Rebecca whispered, “Uncle Thomas?”
Richard’s younger brother.
A man I had seen only twice in eleven years.
According to the family, Thomas had left the business decades earlier after a bitter disagreement.
Richard stared at his wife.
“You’ve been talking to him?”
Martha nodded.
“For years.”
David suddenly looked less angry than afraid.
That frightened me.
Because until that moment, David had reacted to every secret like a man worried about consequences.
At the sound of Thomas’s name, he reacted like a man worried about something worse.
Richard demanded to know why his estranged brother had access to David’s financial accounts.
Martha looked at me instead.
And what she said changed the entire story.
“Because David didn’t create Langley Holdings.”
May you like
She swallowed.
“Thomas did.”
