Chương 5
I didn’t know who you were.
I read that one once.
Then I put the phone down.
Mom appeared in the kitchen doorway wearing slippers and holding the blanket I had told her to use.
“You’re not going to answer?”
“No.”
“That’s probably wise.”
“You told me in the ambulance I should.”
“I contain multitudes.”
I handed her a bowl.
She sat at the table.
After three spoonfuls, she said, “Do you think he would have treated me differently if he knew?”
I sat across from her.
The answer came too quickly.
“Yes.”
Mom nodded.
She seemed almost relieved.
“That’s worse, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
She stirred the soup.
A carrot made a slow circle around the spoon.
Then she said, “You know hiding who you were didn’t make him become this.”
“I know.”
“Didn’t help you see him either.”
I looked at her.
She kept her eyes on the bowl.
There was no accusation in her voice.
That made it harder.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying maybe you weren’t only testing whether somebody could love you without the money.”
My throat tightened.
“What else was I doing?”
“Trying to live without it.”
I said nothing.
She finally looked up.
“Those are different things, Bella.”
Outside, a car horn sounded twice on the avenue below.
Somewhere upstairs, a vacuum cleaner started despite the hour.
I folded the corner of the hospital discharge sheet until it formed a precise little triangle.
Then I unfolded it.
“I liked being Isabella Miller.”
“I know.”
“No board meetings.”
“I know.”
“No articles about Dad.”
“I know.”
“No strangers pretending they remembered me from charity dinners when I was twelve.”
She nodded.
“With Jason, I could be ordinary.”
Mom’s expression softened.
“Sweetheart.”
I stared at the paper.
“He loved ordinary me.”
“Maybe.”
The word hurt more than a definitive answer would have.
I looked up.
Mom touched the bandage on her forehead and sighed.
“Or maybe he loved the version of himself he got to be around you.”
My phone rang again.
Not Jason this time.
Daniel.
I answered.
His voice was tight.
“Isabella, we have a problem.”
My hand stopped on the discharge sheet.
“What happened?”
“Cole Meridian drew twenty-two million dollars against the revolving facility this afternoon.”
I stood without realizing it.
“That’s impossible.”
“It cleared at three forty-seven.”
“Before the reception.”
“Yes.”
“Was the draw scheduled?”
“No.”
“Who authorized it?”
“Jason Cole.”
The kitchen seemed suddenly too small.
Daniel continued.
“And according to the lender notice, most of the funds were transferred out of Cole Meridian’s operating account less than an hour later.”
“Where?”
Daniel exhaled through his nose.
“That’s the problem.”
I looked at my mother.
She had stopped eating.
“Tell me.”
“Seventeen million went to an account at Hudson State Bank under the name Meridian Strategic Holdings.”
“That’s one of Jason’s subsidiaries?”
“Not according to anything in our diligence file.”
“What about the rest?”
“Five million went to cover overdue vendor obligations and payroll reserves.”
“So twenty-two million entered Cole Meridian and seventeen million left almost immediately.”
“Yes.”
“Who owns Meridian Strategic Holdings?”
“We’re pulling corporate records now.”
“Don’t pull anything you’re not authorized to access.”
“I know.”
“I mean it, Daniel.”
“I know.”
The sharpness in his voice brought me back to myself.
He had spent enough years around my father to dislike being treated like an accomplice.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s better.”
Mom raised one eyebrow at me.
Even injured, she remained committed to monitoring my manners.
Daniel continued.
“The syndicate agent noticed the transfer because the account activity tripped a concentration alert.”
“Is the transfer reversible?”
“Not automatically.”
“Can the bank freeze it?”
“Not because we’re uncomfortable.”
I sat back down.
“Has Jason been contacted?”
“The agent called Cole Meridian’s CFO first.”
“Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“That she did not approve the transfer and didn’t know Meridian Strategic Holdings existed.”
The soup smell suddenly made me nauseous.
“Where is she now?”
“At the office.”
“At midnight?”
“Apparently she drove back after getting the call.”
I checked the clock.
It was 10:43.
Not midnight.
My brain was already skipping ahead.
“Who else knows?”
“Me, the agent bank, Rachel, and Leah as of about two minutes ago.”
“You called Leah first?”
“She told me to call you.”
That meant this was no longer family chaos.
It was governance.
Documentation.
Potential fraud.
Or perhaps something less dramatic and merely irresponsible.
I forced myself to stay inside the facts.
“Has anyone accused Jason of wrongdoing?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Isabella.”
“What?”
“The timing is ugly.”
“I know.”
“He made the draw hours before tonight.”
“I know.”
“And then publicly announced a divorce from the person whose family controls one of his major capital relationships.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know.”
I looked at Mom.
She had returned to her soup but was listening to every word.
“What are you actually telling me?”
“I’m telling you I don’t know whether Jason moved money because he expected the financing extension to fail, because he planned to leave you, because there’s another business purpose, or because he did something worse.”
“Thank you.”
“But until we know, don’t contact him about it.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Good.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“You called me from a ballroom while your mother was bleeding and ordered a financing hold.”
Mom murmured, “He has a point.”
I covered the phone.
“You’re supposed to be recovering.”
“I can recover and agree with Daniel.”
Daniel laughed once.
Then his tone hardened again.
“I’ll send everything to Leah and the independent committee.”
“No assumptions in writing.”
“Obviously.”
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“Was the draw permitted under the facility?”
A pause.
“On its face, yes.”
That mattered.
Jason had not necessarily stolen anything by drawing available credit.
Companies used revolving facilities constantly.
The question was what happened after.
“And the transfer?”
“Potentially permitted, depending on the subsidiary relationship and purpose.”
“So we have suspicious timing, not proof.”
“Correct.”
“Keep it that way.”
I ended the call.
Mom watched me.
May you like
“You have the face.”
“What face?”
