Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO FIRED EMILY
His name was Charles Bellamy.
The owner of the café.
The man who had fired Emily without ever speaking to her.
And according to the documents Richard placed on the boardroom table, Charles now controlled almost forty million dollars in Whitmore development assets.
Noah immediately called his attorney.
Emily received a call twenty minutes later.
From Charles himself.
“I think we need to meet.”
“You fired me yesterday.”
“I know.”
“That usually makes me less interested in coffee.”
“Emily, please.”
She almost refused.
Then he said Rose's name.
That changed everything.
They met in a public restaurant.
Noah came too.
Charles looked nervous.
He was fifty-six, carefully dressed, and sweating through his collar.
“I didn't buy those assets.”
Noah signed.
Then why does your company own them?
Charles stared helplessly.
Emily interpreted only after Noah nodded permission.
Charles lowered his voice.
“Richard asked to use one of my holding companies.”
“For forty million dollars?”
“He said it was temporary.”
Emily laughed.
“You let a millionaire hide forty million dollars in your company?”
Charles looked ashamed.
“He saved my business during the pandemic.”
“So you owe him.”
“Yes.”
“And yesterday he told you to fire me.”
Charles nodded.
Noah's jaw tightened.
“Why are you telling us this now?” Emily asked.
“Because he called me last night.”
Charles looked at Noah.
“He told me if anyone asked, I was to say you authorized everything.”
Noah leaned forward.
Charles continued.
“I won't do that.”
For the first time, Emily saw what Richard's power actually looked like.
Not guns.
Not threats in dark alleys.
Debts.
Jobs.
Mortgages.
Favors people were terrified to lose.
Charles slid a flash drive across the table.
“I recorded the call.”
Noah's eyes widened.
“There is something else,” Charles said.
He looked at Emily.
“Your firing wasn't about what happened at the table.”
Emily frowned.
“Then what was it about?”
“Richard recognized your last name.”
Rose Carter.
Charles had heard Richard say it immediately after leaving Bellamy Café.
Then he made another call.
Charles had overheard part of it.
“What did he say?”
Charles looked directly at Emily.
“He said, ‘If Rose kept copies, find them before the girl does.’”
Emily's skin went cold.
Noah signed one word.
Copies?
Emily suddenly remembered Rose's old tin box.
The trust agreement wasn't the only thing inside.
She called home.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Mason picked up.
His voice shook.
“Emily?”
“What happened?”
“Your front door is open.”
Emily stood so quickly her chair fell backward.
May you like
And Mason whispered the next secret.
“Somebody went through your grandmother's house.”
