Chapter 6 - MY FATHER WAS LYING, BUT NOT ABOUT THE LOAN
Dad stared at the loan documents like a man reading his own obituary.
“I didn’t authorize this.”
“You authorized everything else Vanessa wanted.”
“That doesn’t mean I did this.”
Miriam stepped closer.
“Robert, who has access to your digital signature?”
Dad thought.
“Vanessa.”
Of course.
“And the CFO.”
“Who is the CFO?” I asked.
Dad looked at me.
“Leonard Vale’s son.”
I actually laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the pattern was becoming obscene.
“You hired Leonard’s son?”
“Ethan was qualified.”
“Did Mom know him?”
“He was a teenager when she died.”
Miriam opened another ledger.
“Robert, where is Ethan tonight?”
“At the gala.”
I took out my phone.
“Not anymore.”
I called hotel security.
Not the guard who had tried to escort me out.
The head of security.
Marcus Bell.
He had worked for Mom.
Then Dad.
Then me, whether Vanessa understood that or not.
“Marcus, find Ethan Vale.”
He did not ask why.
“On it.”
Three minutes later, he called back.
“Ms. Bennett, Ethan left the building at 8:51.”
My stomach tightened.
Eight minutes after the transfer completed.
“Which exit?”
“Loading dock.”
“With anything?”
“A black document case.”
Dad swore.
I looked at him.
“What was in your office tonight?”
“Board packets.”
“Financial records?”
“Yes.”
“Original loan files?”
His face changed.
“Yes.”
Marcus interrupted.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Mr. Vale did not leave alone.”
Dad looked at the phone.
“Who was with him?”
Marcus paused.
“Mrs. Bennett.”
Vanessa.
The gala hostess.
The woman who had ordered me removed.
The woman who was supposedly still downstairs entertaining donors.
She had slipped out less than ten minutes after losing control of the hotel.
Dad sank into Mom’s chair.
I had never seen him look defeated before.
Then Miriam found a handwritten note tucked inside one of Mom’s ledgers.
Three words.
WATCH THE RESERVE.
The seventeen-million-dollar reserve fund.
I checked the trust account.
The balance was intact.
But a pending instruction had been queued before my birthday.
May you like
At midnight, $16.8 million was scheduled to move.
And Vanessa was the person who had submitted the request.
