Chapter 6 - THEY WERE BUYING MY COMPANY WITH MY OWN MONEY
Arthur inserted Jessica’s flash drive into an isolated forensic laptop.
Marcus stood behind him.
Brendan sat across from me.
Jessica had stopped shaking, but only because a police detective had given her a blanket and something warm to drink.
I stayed close to the door.
The baby had been unusually quiet.
That frightened me more than I wanted to admit.
I pressed my palm against my stomach.
A tiny movement.
Thank God.
Arthur opened the first folder.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Bank statements.
Emails.
Scanned agreements.
Audio files.
“Where did you get this?” he asked.
Jessica stared at the floor.
“Diane.”
Everyone looked at her.
“She gave you this?”
“No.”
Jessica swallowed.
“I copied it.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Brendan stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because I realized your mother was planning to blame me.”
Diane had apparently underestimated the woman she had chosen as her son’s mistress.
Jessica continued.
“At first I believed everything she told me.”
I said nothing.
She looked at me.
“She said you trapped Brendan.”
Brendan closed his eyes.
“She said you were trying to get pregnant to secure money before the divorce.”
My jaw tightened.
Jessica looked ashamed.
“I believed her because I wanted to.”
That was at least truthful.
“I wanted Brendan. And believing you were awful made what I was doing easier.”
Brendan stared at the floor.
“Then Diane asked me to sign paperwork.”
“Blue Harbor.”
Jessica nodded.
“She told me my brother would receive a consulting fee for allowing his name to be used.”
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
Arthur’s eyebrows rose.
“And your brother agreed?”
“He has three kids and medical debt.”
I understood.
Not approved.
But understood.
“She said the arrangement was legal.”
Arthur muttered, “They always do.”
Jessica continued.
“Then I found an email where Diane called my brother ‘the fallback defendant.’”
Brendan’s head lifted.
“What?”
“She was going to blame everything on him.”
Her eyes filled.
“So I copied anything I could find.”
Arthur clicked through folders.
Then stopped.
“Here.”
He enlarged a spreadsheet.
At first, I saw nothing unusual.
Payments.
Dates.
Holding companies.
Then Arthur highlighted one column.
“Share purchases.”
I leaned closer.
Halcyon money flowed to shell vendors.
The shell vendors moved funds into investment vehicles.
Those vehicles purchased Halcyon shares from minority investors.
My stomach turned.
“They stole company money…”
Arthur nodded.
“To buy company stock.”
“Who controls the investment vehicles?”
Jessica answered before he could.
“Richard.”
Brendan stood.
“My father has been buying Halcyon shares with Halcyon’s own money?”
“Indirectly,” Arthur said.
“Through layers of entities.”
“How much?”
Arthur ran the totals.
“Based on what’s here?”
He looked at me.
“Approximately eighty-three million.”
There it was.
Richard hadn’t exaggerated.
The money wasn’t missing.
It had been converted into ownership.
I stared at the screen.
“How many shares?”
“Not enough to control the company.”
“Then what was the point?”
Arthur looked thoughtful.
“Unless…”
He opened the divorce-trigger agreement.
Then Charles Whitmore’s governance provisions.
Then several investor records.
His expression changed.
“Oh.”
“What?”
He began typing.
“Cassidy, if Section Twelve had successfully restricted all your voting shares…”
“How much would Richard control?”
“Not Richard alone.”
He looked at Jessica.
“Blue Harbor.”
Then another entity.
“Whitmore Strategic Holdings.”
And another.
“Morrison Capital.”
He calculated.
Nobody spoke.
Finally:
“Forty-eight point seven percent.”
Brendan whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
Arthur nodded.
“And if the option in the divorce agreement had triggered…”
He entered another number.
“Fifty-one point three.”
I sat back.
For the first time, everything fit.
My marriage.
The hidden agreement.
The affair.
The divorce.
Section Twelve.
The stolen money.
Richard and Charles had been constructing a path to majority control.
My marriage ending was necessary.
My apparent emotional instability was necessary.
Protocol 7 had simply forced them to accelerate.
Brendan looked ill.
“They needed me to divorce Cassidy.”
“Yes,” Arthur said.
Jessica’s face changed.
“They encouraged the affair.”
Nobody answered.
She looked at Brendan.
“Your mother invited me to Aspen.”
Brendan stared at her.
“What?”
“The first time.”
Their affair had started during a Halcyon leadership retreat in Aspen.
I knew because that was the first hotel receipt I found.
Jessica continued.
“Diane told me you were unhappy.”
Brendan looked devastated.
“She told me Cassidy was cheating on you.”
He turned toward me.
I almost laughed.
Of course.
Diane had been laying roads in every direction.
Jessica whispered, “I’m sorry.”
I looked at her.
“I don’t forgive you.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
“You knew Brendan was married.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I was pregnant when you continued seeing him.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to comfort you because you discovered you were manipulated.”
She wiped her cheek.
“I understand.”
“But if you help expose what happened, I will make sure your brother’s cooperation is presented truthfully.”
Relief moved across her face.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Arthur opened an audio file.
“Listen.”
Static.
Then Diane’s voice.
“We don’t need Brendan to understand.”
Richard answered.
“He’s sentimental.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“What if he stays with Cassidy?”
Diane laughed.
“He won’t.”
My chest tightened.
Then Richard:
“You’re certain about Jessica?”
“She’s exactly his type.”
Brendan’s face collapsed.
Jessica closed her eyes.
Diane continued on the recording.
“Pretty, ambitious, insecure enough to flatter him.”
Jessica flinched.
Brendan stared at nothing.
Then Richard asked:
“And Cassidy?”
Diane’s voice became cold.
“Pregnancy will make her vulnerable.”
I stopped breathing.
The room went silent.
The recording continued.
“If Brendan leaves at the right moment, she’ll be humiliated. Emotional. Distracted.”
Richard said something quieter.
Diane answered:
“Then Charles invokes the clause.”
Arthur paused the recording.
Nobody moved.
Finally Brendan whispered:
“They planned it.”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
“They planned my affair.”
“No.”
His eyes met mine.
I kept my voice calm.
“They created the opportunity.”
Brendan swallowed.
“You made the choice.”
He looked away.
Jessica began crying again.
I understood why.
Being manipulated does not erase responsibility.
Sometimes that truth hurts worse than being blamed.
Marcus entered.
“We have an update on the vehicle.”
I looked at him.
“Jessica’s car?”
“Yes.”
“Who cut the brake line?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Richard appeared behind him.
Two security officers stood on either side.
Brendan jumped up.
“You’re letting him in?”
“I asked them to bring him,” I said.
Richard looked around.
His eyes landed on the laptop.
Then Jessica.
His face changed.
“You stupid girl.”
Marcus stepped between them.
Jessica recoiled.
Brendan moved in front of her instinctively.
Richard laughed.
“Now you protect her?”
Brendan’s fists tightened.
“Did you cut her brakes?”
Richard actually looked offended.
“Of course not.”
“You stole from the company.”
“Allegedly.”
“You used me.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
“Oh, grow up.”
Brendan froze.
“You spent thirty-four years living in luxury because of me.”
“You arranged my marriage.”
“No.”
Richard shook his head.
“We arranged an introduction.”
“Without telling me who Cassidy was.”
“Because you would have ruined it.”
I stared at him.
“Why Brendan?”
Richard looked at me.
“Because you were lonely.”
The cruelty of it was almost elegant.
“You researched me.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
Brendan looked sick.
Richard continued.
“Your grandfather made the mistake of naming an eighteen-year-old girl as successor to an empire.”
“My grandfather named me because he trusted me.”
“He loved you.”
Richard smiled.
“That is not the same thing.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead I sat very still.
“You thought if Brendan married me, you could eventually access the trust.”
“Yes.”
The simplicity of the answer shocked everyone.
Brendan whispered, “Dad.”
Richard looked at him.
“You want honesty? Fine.”
He pointed toward me.
“She was never supposed to stay secret.”
“What?”
“After the wedding, we expected her to reveal everything.”
I understood.
“And when I didn’t?”
“You became inconvenient.”
Diane must have hated that.
They married their son to an heiress and still couldn’t touch her fortune.
“So you tried to break us.”
Richard shrugged.
“Your marriage was already weak.”
Brendan stepped toward him.
“You told me Cassidy was ashamed of me.”
Richard looked bored.
“You believed me.”
“You told me she was hiding money because she planned to leave.”
“You believed that too.”
Brendan’s voice cracked.
“You’re my father.”
Richard gave him the coldest answer possible.
“And you’re an adult.”
Silence.
Brendan looked like something inside him had finally died.
Then Richard looked at me.
“You’ve won.”
“Have I?”
“You blocked Section Twelve.”
“For now.”
“You found the transactions.”
“Yes.”
“So let’s negotiate.”
I laughed.
Everyone looked at me.
It came from somewhere deep and tired.
“You tried to steal control of Halcyon using its own money, manipulated my marriage, buried my grandfather’s investigation, and now you want to negotiate?”
“Yes.”
He was completely serious.
“Why would I?”
Richard smiled.
“Because I know something you don’t.”
Diane had said almost the same thing.
I was tired of secrets.
“What?”
“Who cut Jessica’s brake line.”
Jessica froze.
Brendan stepped toward his father.
“Who?”
Richard looked at me.
“Give me immunity from Halcyon’s civil claims.”
“No.”
“Cassidy.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“You may regret that.”
“Maybe.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Remove him.”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Probably not my first.”
The officers took his arms.
As they led him toward the door, he twisted around.
“Ask Jessica where Diane is.”
Everyone stopped.
Jessica frowned.
“What?”
Richard smiled.
“Diane disappeared forty minutes ago.”
Marcus touched his earpiece.
His face hardened.
Then he looked at me.
“He’s right.”
I stood.
“How?”
“Her phone is still at the house.”
My blood turned cold.
“Where would she go?”
Brendan suddenly whispered:
“The lake house.”
Richard laughed.
“No.”
Brendan looked at him.
Richard’s smile was almost pitying.
“She’s going to Rowan House.”
My heart stopped.
My mother’s housekeeper.
Mrs. Alvarez.
Family records.
My grandfather’s private archives.
And suddenly I knew exactly what Diane wanted.
The one thing nobody had found yet.
The original evidence my grandfather intended me to receive.
I grabbed my phone.
Mrs. Alvarez answered on the first ring.
“Cassidy?”
“Lock the doors.”
“What?”
“Now.”
Silence.
Then I heard something behind her.
Glass breaking.
Mrs. Alvarez whispered:
May you like
“Someone is in the house.”
The line went dead.
