Chương 5
“I agree.”
“You’ll need to step out of decisions concerning the investigation.”
Victoria looked out at the passing storefronts. “Temporarily.”
“That will be for the board to determine.”
There it was—the first small loss of power, spoken in a professional tone by a man who had attended her wedding and held her father’s coat at the funeral.
“Understood.”
“And Victoria?”
“Yes?”
“If there is anything you have not told me because you think it looks bad, tell me before the meeting.”
She thought of the warehouse entity in Savannah. The emergency transfer she had approved after midnight during the port strike. Julian beside her at the kitchen island, turning the laptop so she could sign. He had said the entity was temporary. He had said the bank needed speed. She had been exhausted and angry at a vendor who threatened to abandon them.
“I signed documents I did not read closely enough.”
Elias glanced at her.
Martin did not speak for several seconds.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then find out.”
The call ended.
Victoria rested the phone against her knee. “He’s going to suspend me.”
“Maybe.”
“I built that company.”
“Yes.”
“My father left me three trucks and a warehouse with a leaking roof.”
“I know.”
“I slept in the office during the first contract season.”
“I know.”
She turned toward Elias. “Stop saying you know.”
He stopped at a red light. “All right.”
A man in the car beside them was eating noodles from a takeout container with a plastic fork. He looked over, saw Victoria staring, and lifted the container as if offering a toast.
She looked away.
At Hale Meridian’s headquarters, the board had gathered in the tenth-floor conference room. The glass walls, chosen to suggest openness, made privacy impossible. Employees stood at a distance pretending to discuss work while watching Victoria cross the lobby.
Her assistant, Lena, hurried toward her.
“Your mother is downstairs.”
“How did she get here before us?”
“She was released before you arrived. Security called because she refused to wait in reception.”
“Where is she?”
“In your office.”
Victoria stopped walking.
Lena lowered her voice. “She used the family access code.”
“Disable it.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
Elias glanced at Victoria but said nothing.
Brenda stood at the office window with her back to the room. She had removed her cream jacket and folded it over a chair. Without it, she looked smaller. The pearl necklace remained perfectly centered at her throat.
“You let strangers question Jasmine like a criminal,” she said.
Victoria closed the door. “The bailiff collected her information.”
“Trent’s bank called while we were still in the conference room.”
“About the transfer?”
“About all their accounts.”
“That isn’t my doing.”
Brenda turned. “You brought the envelope.”
“Julian moved the money.”
“You don’t know what Julian did.”
“I know he lied under oath.”
“You know what a piece of paper says.”
Elias remained near the door. “Mrs. Hale, you should obtain independent counsel.”
Brenda looked at him as though noticing a stain. “I am speaking to my daughter.”
“Your daughter is represented, and your interests may conflict with hers.”
“My interests have never conflicted with hers.”
Victoria laughed once. It came out harder than she intended.
Brenda’s face stiffened.
“Mom, why is your name on a beneficial-owner form?”
“I don’t know that it is.”
“You saw the page.”
“I saw my name on something Elias waved around.”
“Judge Mercer saw it too.”
“Judges can be impressed by paper.”
Elias’s eyebrows rose slightly. “That would be an unfortunate theory to test.”
Brenda ignored him. “Julian helped me with estate planning after your father died. There were accounts. Trusts. I signed what he told me to sign.”
“What accounts?”
“I don’t memorize routing numbers.”
“What was the money for?”
“My future.”
The answer came too quickly.
Victoria felt a chill under her skin. “What does that mean?”
Brenda looked toward the glass wall, where several employees were passing slowly.
“Close the blinds.”
Victoria pressed the control. The panels darkened one by one, turning the office into a gray box.
Brenda sat on the sofa and placed both hands on her knees. “Your father did not leave things as neatly as you like to pretend.”
“He left the company to me because I was running it.”
“He left you control.”
“He left Jasmine property and you the investment accounts.”
“He left me enough to maintain the house for perhaps six years if nothing went wrong.”
“You sold the house for three million dollars.”
“And bought somewhere else to live.”
Victoria stared at her. “Did Julian move company money to you?”
“No.”
“Did he move money into an account with your name on it?”
Brenda’s eyes flickered.
“That is not the same question.”
Elias shifted his weight by the door.
Victoria sat across from her mother. “Answer it.”
Brenda touched one pearl near the center of the necklace. “He said the account was part of a family reserve.”
“What family reserve?”
“A structure your father intended.”
“My father was dead.”
“His intentions did not die with him.”
“Did Julian show you a will? A letter? Anything?”
“He explained it.”
“Julian explained what you wanted to hear.”
Brenda’s hand fell from the necklace. “Do not speak to me as if I’m stupid.”
“I’m trying to understand whether you helped my husband steal from me.”
The words settled between them.
Brenda’s eyes filled, but no tears fell. Her voice remained steady.
“You think everything you built belongs only to you because your name is on the door.”
“It is not only my name. Nine hundred people depend on that company.”
“And nobody depended on your father? Nobody stood beside him when the business nearly failed? Nobody raised his children while he worked?”
“You were compensated from the estate.”
“Compensated.”
The word came out thin and bitter.
Brenda looked at Elias. “Leave.”
“He stays.”
“This is family.”
May you like
Victoria leaned back. “That sentence has cost me enough.”
Brenda flinched as if slapped. For a moment, Victoria wanted to take it back. Then she remembered the account sheet and the transfer made that morning.
