Chương 10
“We moved expenses between entities, extended vendor payments, reclassified liabilities, and used projected revenue to support financing that should have been reconsidered.”
Officer Mills shifted slightly near the door.
Thomas noticed.
“I’m not asking for immunity from anything.”
“You’re not important enough for me to offer it,” I said.
The cruelty came easily.
I regretted it almost immediately.
Thomas only nodded.
“I know.”
That made me angrier.
“Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Standing there like accepting every insult counts as accountability.”
His jaw tightened.
“Would you prefer I defend myself?”
“I’d prefer you answer.”
“I was thirty-nine and convinced I could help Richard stabilize the company before anyone was hurt.”
“Were people hurt?”
“Yes.”
The directness stopped me.
“Who?”
“Employees lost retirement contributions when one subsidiary was shut down.”
My stomach turned.
“Dad said those layoffs were because of automation.”
“Automation was part of it.”
“Was that a lie?”
“It was an incomplete truth.”
I laughed without humor.
“This family should put that on the company logo.”
Thomas looked away.
Renee let the silence sit for a few seconds before asking, “Did Eleanor know the extent of what you and Richard did?”
“Eventually.”
“How?”
“An accountant refused to sign off on a quarterly statement.”
“Which accountant?”
“Leonard Voss.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“He took it to Eleanor instead of the board.”
“Why her?”
“Because he believed Richard could fire him before the board understood what he had found.”
“And did Dad fire him?”
“Yes.”
“Of course he did.”
“Eleanor rehired him as an outside consultant the following week.”
That was so precisely her that I could almost hear her dry voice asking whether Dad had enjoyed wasting company stationery on the termination letter.
“What happened to Voss?”
“He retired six years ago.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know about the trust?”
“I don’t know.”
Thomas paused.
“He knew Eleanor was creating protections for you, but I doubt he knew the details.”
I set the letter beside me carefully.
“Why didn’t she expose Dad?”
“She thought she was saving the company and protecting thousands of employees.”
“That sounds convenient.”
“It probably was.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Eleanor had her own blind spots.”
His voice sharpened for the first time.
“She believed she could contain Richard.”
“And you?”
“I believed she could too.”
“Until she died.”
“Yes.”
The word settled heavily.
A nurse pushed a cart past the hallway.
Plastic cups rattled together.
Somewhere farther down the floor, an elevator chimed.
I looked at the letter again.
“Why didn’t you give this to me when she died?”
“Because the conditions she described hadn’t happened.”
“You mean Dad hadn’t tried to use my assets yet.”
“Not in a way I could prove.”
“You were watching him?”
“From a distance.”
“That’s creepy.”
“Probably.”
“Stop agreeing with me.”
His mouth twitched despite everything.
“I’m trying.”
That tiny, inappropriate almost-smile annoyed me less than it should have.
“Why now?”
“Because yesterday I saw documents referencing your trust as support for a refinancing package.”
“And you called Margaret.”
“I did.”
“What else?”
“I confronted Richard.”
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“Where?”
“My office.”
“What did he say?”
“That you had agreed to help.”
“I hadn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
Thomas inhaled slowly.
“I suspected it.”
“Not good enough.”
“No.”
He caught himself after saying it and looked almost embarrassed.
I would have laughed if my leg had not been throbbing.
“What happened after you confronted him?”
“He showed me a copy of the trust amendment.”
“With my forged signature.”
“I didn’t know it was forged at that moment.”
“Did you believe it was real?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the signature looked wrong.”
I glanced at the deed on my phone.
“It looked convincing to me.”
“I’ve seen your signature on hundreds of documents.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“It wasn’t intended to be.”
He leaned back.
“You sign your middle initial differently when you’re rushed.”
I stared at him.
“That’s an unsettling thing to know.”
“I noticed because the company once received a stack of approvals you had signed for your grandmother during college.”
“What was wrong with the amendment signature?”
“The initial was too careful.”
That was one clue.
The Denver trip made another.
Earned, not mystical.
Human fraud usually failed in boring places.
“Did you tell Dad you thought it was forged?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Thomas looked toward the door, though Dad was long gone.
“He said you were under pressure and had probably forgotten signing it.”
My skin prickled.
“And you believed that?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“I called Margaret.”
“That’s the voicemail.”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“I told Richard I wouldn’t guarantee the refinancing.”
“What happened after that?”
“He said the company would collapse.”
“Would it?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly is doing a lot of work today.”
“I can’t see every current liability until I review the books.”
“But it’s serious.”
“Yes.”
“How serious?”
Thomas hesitated.
“There are payroll concerns.”
My chest tightened.
“How soon?”
“Potentially within weeks.”
That was not abstract money.
Shaw Industrial employed just over nine hundred people across two states.
People with mortgages.
People who knew my father’s name because it was printed above the entrance.
People who did not know mine except perhaps from holiday newsletters.
“So if I refuse to help, people could lose jobs.”
Thomas’s silence answered before he did.
“Yes.”
There it was.
The trap beneath the trap.
My grandmother’s warning became heavier in my hand.
Dad would not need to say family if he could say employees.
He would not need to call me selfish.
I could do that myself.
Renee watched my face.
“You don’t have to decide any business matter from a hospital bed.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I almost snapped at her.
Then I looked at the IV line taped to my arm and the blood seeping faintly through my ankle bandage.
“No.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“Claire, Richard is going to use the company to pressure you.”
May you like
“Are you warning me or helping him?”
His expression tightened.
