Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT THEY USED AARON’S PASSWORD
The $12.4 million transfer had not completed.
That was the first good news.
Prescott Global’s treasury bank flagged it because the recipient account had recently changed.
The money was frozen pending verification.
Aaron looked relieved.
Then angry.
He turned toward Jasmine.
“Did you do this?”
“No.”
“Your family company.”
“It isn’t mine.”
“Your last name is literally on it.”
Jasmine snapped:
“My father owns it.”
Another Cole.
Apparently the family had more LLCs than Christmas cards.
The intended recipient belonged to Jasmine’s father, Robert Cole, a struggling media-buying consultant.
Prescott Global had used his company years earlier for small regional campaigns.
Nothing remotely close to twelve million dollars.
The payment request came from Aaron’s laptop.
Physical location:
A hotel in Cambridge.
The hotel where Aaron and Jasmine had spent the night.
My stomach turned, but not from jealousy.
From logistics.
“Who had the computer?”
Aaron looked embarrassed.
“I did.”
“In the room?”
“Yes.”
“Locked?”
He said nothing.
Of course.
Jasmine looked at him.
“You left it downstairs.”
“What?”
“At the hotel bar. You were talking to Daniel.”
Aaron’s longtime friend and Chief Operating Officer, Daniel Reeves.
Then Aaron remembered.
He had stepped away for almost thirty minutes.
The laptop remained beside Daniel.
Corporate security pulled badge and device records.
Daniel’s phone had connected to the same hotel Wi-Fi.
So had another device.
Registered to:
MELISSA PRESCOTT.
Everyone looked at Aaron’s mother.
She was furious.
“I was not at that hotel.”
“Could someone be using your tablet?” I asked.
Melissa froze.
Then:
“My office iPad.”
“Who has it?”
“My assistant.”
Name:
Celia Grant.
Celia had worked for Melissa for nine years.
Trusted.
Invisible.
Exactly the kind of person everyone ignored.
Security called Celia.
No answer.
Her apartment was empty.
Her company laptop had been wiped remotely two hours earlier.
Now the story changed again.
Celia had access to Melissa’s email.
Aaron’s schedules.
Board materials.
Trust documents.
Possibly even my original estate signatures.
Nathan looked at me.
“She could have created the proxy.”
“Why?”
We didn’t know.
Then Hawthorne’s general counsel called.
He had found payments from a small consulting vendor into an account belonging to Celia’s brother.
Total:
$840,000 over four years.
Vendor:
Cole Strategic Media.
Jasmine whispered:
“My father.”
Her face went white.
Celia had been paid indirectly by Jasmine’s family.
Then corporate security recovered one deleted email from a backup.
From Robert Cole to Celia:
Once Aaron controls the votes, Melissa becomes irrelevant.
My stomach tightened.
The forged proxy had not been created to help Melissa control Aaron.
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It may have been designed so someone else could later control Aaron through those votes.
And if Robert Cole was behind it, Jasmine’s affair with my husband might not have started as romance at all.
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