Chapter 10 - THE MEETING BEN NEEDED TO STOP
Ethan Cole had worked for me for six years.
Quiet.
Brilliant.
Obsessive about documentation.
If Ethan said he found something, he had found something.
Julian called him.
No answer.
Detective Hale sent officers to his apartment.
Empty.
No sign of struggle.
Computer gone.
Suitcase gone.
Then I remembered Ethan’s email.
He had written one strange sentence:
You should ask your father why MedAxis paid Crestline Consulting in 2021.
I looked at Dad.
“What is Crestline?”
He frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Julian searched.
Crestline Consulting had received six payments from MedAxis during the final year before the sale.
Total:
$480,000.
I had never approved them.
“Who authorized the payments?”
Julian pulled up archived corporate records.
The approval came from a finance administrator I trusted at the time.
But the destination account belonged to a company linked to—
Dad.
He looked horrified.
“I swear I never saw that money.”
Then the pattern emerged.
Someone had been using my father’s identity years before Ben supposedly got involved.
Lauren whispered:
“Ben and I were already dating in 2021.”
The room went still.
“How serious?”
“We had been together eight months.”
I looked at Dad.
“Did you ever talk to him about MedAxis?”
He hesitated.
That was enough.
“What did you tell him?”
“That you were preparing to sell.”
“What else?”
Dad’s voice dropped.
“That you were exhausted.”
“That isn’t financial information.”
“I might have mentioned your CFO was leaving.”
I closed my eyes.
Ben had been studying my business before he ever married Lauren.
Maybe before he even loved her.
If he loved her at all.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number again.
This time I answered.
Silence.
Then a man spoke.
“Miranda.”
Ben.
Lauren stood so fast her chair fell backward.
I raised one hand.
“Where are you?”
He laughed softly.
“You sound better.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“I paid an idiot to delay you. He panicked. The truck malfunctioned. That wasn’t the plan.”
“What was the plan?”
“To keep you from Ethan.”
My pulse hammered.
“Why?”
“Because Ethan found something I spent five years building.”
“What?”
A pause.
Then Ben said:
“Your company sale wasn’t worth what you think it was.”
Julian leaned closer to the phone.
Ben continued.
“And if Ethan reaches the wrong people, you won’t just lose money.”
Another pause.
“You could lose MedAxis itself.”
The call ended.
I stared at the screen.
Then Julian whispered:
May you like
“That’s impossible.”
But his face told me he was no longer sure.
