Chapter 5 - THE PERSON I TRUSTED MOST AT HIS COMPANY
Laurel stared at Rebecca Sloan’s name.
“No.”
Margaret said nothing.
“No, Rebecca helped expose him.”
“She helped expose some of it.”
“She told us about the mortgage.”
“She told us she overheard Grant discussing the mortgage.”
Laurel’s stomach tightened.
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
They returned to Margaret’s office immediately.
The forensic accountant, Charles Wynn, appeared on a secure video call.
Behind him were spreadsheets and banking records.
Charles had spent twenty-six years tracing money through failed companies, divorces, fraud cases, and executive misconduct.
He was not easily surprised.
That afternoon, he looked disturbed.
“Bennett Development has been leaking money for at least eighteen months.”
Laurel looked at the screen.
“How much?”
“We’re still calculating.”
“Estimate.”
“Between $1.4 million and $2.1 million.”
Margaret sat straighter.
Laurel felt strangely numb.
“How?”
“Vendor payments.”
Charles shared his screen.
Eight companies appeared.
Stone Ridge Consulting.
North Grove Strategies.
Blue Ember Marketing.
Hillside Procurement.
Four others.
“All were approved as vendors by executive authorization,” Charles explained. “Most received monthly payments between fifteen and eighty thousand dollars.”
Laurel frowned.
“What services?”
“That’s the problem. We haven’t found meaningful services.”
Margaret asked, “Who approved them?”
“Grant signed some.”
Charles changed the screen.
“Rebecca approved others.”
Laurel stared.
“What does Rebecca say?”
“We haven’t contacted her.”
“Why?”
“Because if she’s involved, we don’t want her destroying evidence.”
The sentence felt surreal.
Rebecca had held Maisie at Laurel’s baby shower.
She had given Laurel a tiny knitted blanket.
She had once called Grant reckless after he nearly overpaid for commercial land.
Laurel trusted her.
Perhaps that was the lesson.
She had trusted too many people because she assumed loyalty traveled in both directions.
Margaret leaned closer.
“Where did the money go?”
Charles opened another chart.
“Several vendors transfer funds shortly after receiving payment.”
“To Grant?”
“Some.”
“To Rebecca?”
“Some.”
“And the rest?”
Charles hesitated.
“One destination traces to a company incorporated in Delaware.”
“Who owns it?”
“We’re working on that.”
Laurel rubbed her forehead.
Maisie stirred in the bassinet.
Laurel immediately reached for her.
The movement pulled at her incision.
She winced.
Margaret noticed.
“You need rest.”
“I need answers.”
“You need both.”
Laurel looked down at her daughter.
“That seems impossible lately.”
At six that evening, Margaret arranged for Laurel to stay at a furnished condominium owned by the family trust.
Security controlled the entrance.
No one knew the address except Laurel, Margaret, and two members of the legal team.
Laurel hated hiding.
But she hated uncertainty more.
At eight thirty, someone called the lobby asking for her.
The guard refused to provide information.
Then Laurel received a text.
It’s Sienna. I need five minutes. Please.
Laurel considered ignoring it.
Instead, she called Margaret.
Fifteen minutes later, Sienna entered the condominium accompanied by a security guard.
She looked entirely different from the woman Laurel had caught in the bedroom.
No silk robe.
No glamorous makeup.
No confidence.
She wore jeans, sneakers, and an oversized black sweatshirt.
She looked exhausted.
Laurel did not invite her to sit.
“What do you want?”
Sienna glanced at Maisie sleeping nearby.
Her face tightened with shame.
“I found something.”
Laurel waited.
“When I left the house, I went to my apartment. Grant showed up.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted my phone.”
Laurel’s expression changed.
“He knew you recorded Vivian?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He threatened to ruin me.”
Margaret folded her arms.
“Specific words?”
Sienna nodded.
“He said he would tell every agency in Nashville I stole from the company.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Margaret glanced toward Laurel.
Sienna continued quickly.
“He bought things for me. Trips. Jewelry. I knew some were on his company card, but he told me executives did that all the time.”
Laurel’s face remained cold.
“You knew it was wrong.”
“Yes.”
At least she did not deny it.
Sienna took a flash drive from her purse.
“After he left, I started going through everything he ever sent me.”
She placed the drive on the table.
“Emails. Voice messages. Documents.”
Margaret did not touch it yet.
“What’s on there?”
“One thing you need to hear.”
Sienna opened her laptop.
She played a recording.
Grant’s voice filled the room.
Rebecca says Laurel won’t notice anything until after the baby.
Another voice.
Sienna’s.
Notice what?
Grant laughed.
Nothing you need to worry about.
The audio continued.
Once the restructuring closes, I’ll have enough control to push the trust out. Rebecca has the paperwork handled.
Laurel felt cold.
Sienna paused the recording.
“I didn’t understand what he meant.”
Margaret asked, “When was this?”
“Six weeks ago.”
Laurel looked toward the sleeping baby.
Six weeks earlier, she had been choosing curtains for the nursery.
Grant had been discussing how to push her trust out of the company she had funded.
Margaret asked Sienna, “Why were you recording him?”
Sienna hesitated.
“Because I didn’t trust him.”
Laurel almost laughed.
The mistress did not trust the cheating husband.
The irony would have been funny in another life.
Sienna’s eyes filled.
“I know what you think of me.”
“You don’t.”
“I deserve it.”
“Yes.”
Sienna nodded.
“But Grant lies when he’s angry. And sometimes he forgets what he said. I started recording arguments because he would convince me later that I imagined things.”
Laurel stared at her.
That sounded painfully familiar.
Grant had done the same thing throughout their marriage.
He rarely shouted.
He edited reality.
He would say something cruel, then later insist Laurel had misunderstood.
He would cancel plans and claim she had forgotten the correct date.
He would spend money and tell her they had discussed it.
Small things.
Constant things.
Until Laurel sometimes questioned her own memory.
Sienna opened another file.
“This is the one that scared me.”
Grant’s voice again.
Once the baby arrives, Laurel won’t have time to audit anything. She’ll be overwhelmed.
Rebecca’s voice answered.
That’s not enough. Margaret watches the trust.
Grant replied.
Then we make it look like Laurel authorized the restructuring.
Silence filled the room.
Sienna closed the laptop.
Laurel stared ahead.
Margaret’s expression had become very still.
“When was that recorded?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“Grant’s office.”
Sienna swallowed.
“I was in the private lounge outside his office. They didn’t know I was there.”
Margaret picked up the flash drive using a tissue and placed it inside an evidence envelope.
“You understand that by providing this, you may also expose yourself to investigation?”
Sienna nodded.
“I know.”
“Why do it?”
Sienna looked at Laurel.
“Because yesterday I thought I was stealing someone’s husband.”
Her voice cracked.
“Today I realized I was helping him destroy a woman who had just given birth.”
Laurel felt no comfort.
But something inside her shifted.
Not forgiveness.
Understanding.
Predatory people did not always choose one victim.
Sometimes they simply found different ways to use everyone.
The next morning, Rebecca Sloan arrived at the office and discovered two investigators waiting.
She did not run.
She did not protest.
She quietly followed them into the conference room.
Laurel joined by video.
Rebecca looked directly at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Laurel’s heart sank.
Not I didn’t do it.
Not This is a mistake.
I’m sorry.
“How much?” Laurel asked.
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“About six hundred thousand came to me.”
Margaret asked, “Why?”
Rebecca began crying.
“Grant found out about my brother.”
Laurel frowned.
“What about him?”
Rebecca’s younger brother had spent years battling gambling debt.
Grant learned that Rebecca had quietly loaned him money from her personal savings.
Nothing illegal.
But embarrassing.
Then Grant discovered Rebecca had once approved an expense reimbursement without proper documentation.
Again, small.
Correctable.
But Grant threatened to accuse her of financial misconduct.
“He told me I would never work in finance again,” Rebecca whispered.
Margaret’s voice stayed hard.
“So you stole instead?”
Rebecca nodded.
“At first I only approved vendors.”
“For fake services.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“He started sending money to accounts he controlled. He gave me portions.”
“Why?”
“To make me guilty too.”
Laurel stared at the woman.
Grant had not simply bribed Rebecca.
He had compromised her.
Once she accepted money, she could no longer expose him without exposing herself.
“What was the end goal?” Laurel asked.
Rebecca wiped her eyes.
“Control.”
“Of the company?”
“And the estate.”
Laurel’s voice dropped.
“How?”
Rebecca looked toward the camera.
“Grant wanted enough debt attached to your assets that Bennett Family Holdings would have to liquidate shares.”
Margaret understood first.
“He planned to create a financial crisis.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Then buy the shares through another entity.”
“With what money?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Company money.”
Laurel almost stopped breathing.
Grant planned to steal funds from the company, create financial pressure on Laurel’s holding company, then use stolen funds to buy control.
It was audacious.
And deeply stupid.
But if nobody looked closely, it might have worked.
Laurel asked one last question.
“Who owns the Delaware company?”
Rebecca looked down.
“I don’t know.”
“Grant?”
“No.”
“Vivian?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Rebecca raised her eyes.
“It belongs to Sienna.”
Laurel stared at the screen.
May you like
Across the room, Margaret slowly turned toward the evidence envelope containing Sienna’s flash drive.
And Laurel realized the woman who had come begging for protection the night before might have left out one very important detail.
