PART 7

PART 7

I stared at it.

“That’s forgery.”

Nina nodded.

“Yes.”

My hands went cold.

“How many?”

“We’ve identified twenty-three so far.”

Twenty-three.

I sat down.

“How much money?”

“Approximately $9.4 million.”

I looked at Nina.

“And the people involved?”

“Daniel.”

“Who else?”

She placed another document on the table.

Melissa.

His mother.

His father.

Two outside consultants.

And one name I hadn’t expected.

I stared at it.

Andrew Bell.

My heart stopped.

Andrew was Daniel’s best friend.

He had been our wedding photographer.

He had been at our anniversary dinner.

He had laughed when Daniel called me a freeloader.

And now his name was on a transfer document.

I whispered, “How?”

Nina looked at me.

“Because Andrew has been helping Daniel move the money.”

I sat back.

For nine years, I had trusted these people.

I had invited them into my home.

Celebrated birthdays with them.

Paid for vacations.

Helped their children.

And all along, they had been quietly dismantling the company I built.

Nina reached into the box.

“There is one more thing.”

She handed me an envelope.

“What is it?”

“It was found in Daniel’s private office.”

I opened it.

Inside was a copy of a contract.

I read the first page.

Then the second.

Then the third.

My heart began pounding.

“Nina.”

“Yes?”

“This is dated six months ago.”

“Yes.”

“They were planning to sell the company.”

She nodded.

“Without you.”

I kept reading.

The proposed sale price was $42 million.

My husband had been preparing to sell the company for forty-two million dollars.

And the contract contained one sentence that made everything suddenly clear.

Upon completion of sale, Claire Morgan’s voting rights shall be terminated.

I stared at the words.

Then I looked up.

“They were going to steal my company.”

Nina didn’t answer.

She didn’t need to.

I slowly closed the folder.

For years, I had believed my marriage was the most important thing I had built.

I was wrong.

I had built something much bigger.

And now I was going to take it back.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Daniel.

We need to talk. Please come home.

I stared at it.

Then another message appeared.

I know what you found.

Then another.

Please don’t destroy our family.

I typed one sentence.

You should have thought about our family before you made me the biggest mistake of your life.

I pressed send.

Then I turned to Nina.

“Tomorrow morning?”

She nodded.

“Tomorrow morning.”

“What happens tomorrow?”

She opened the final folder.

“The board meeting.”

I looked at the papers.

“Good.”

Because tomorrow, Daniel would walk into the company believing he was still the man in charge.

THE END