Chapter 2 - THE ACCOUNT IN HER NAME
“Which night you wanted me home early,” Grant finished quietly.
Claire's fingers stopped moving over her tablet.
“You remember.”
“Of course I remember.”
“No, Grant. You remember the words. You forgot what they meant.”
He pulled out the stool and sat down.
For once, he didn't have an immediate answer.
A notification appeared on his laptop. His chief financial officer, Martin Cole, had sent an urgent message requesting a private call.
Grant opened the attachment.
The first page showed a transfer of $2.4 million from a restricted company account. The authorization carried Claire's electronic signature.
Grant stared at it.
“Did you access company funds?”
Claire's face changed.
“Excuse me?”
“There was a transfer under your name.”
“I haven't touched your company's money.”
“The authorization—”
“Is probably another thing you should investigate before accusing me.”
He heard the bitterness in her voice and knew he deserved it.
Before he could respond, Martin called.
“Grant, we've got a serious problem,” Martin said. “The transfer passed through three offshore accounts. The approval was issued using your wife's credentials, but the access point was outside the country.”
“Freeze everything.”
“Already done. There's something else. Someone deleted the original audit trail.”
Grant stood.
“Who had access?”
“Your executive administrator. Paige Rowan.”
Claire slowly lowered her tablet.
“Paige worked for your company?”
Grant looked at her.
He had never told Claire that Paige had been hired as a consultant six months earlier. He'd convinced himself there was no reason to discuss it because the arrangement was supposedly professional.
Now the omission looked exactly like what it was.
A lie.
“Why was she using my credentials?” Claire asked.
“I don't know.”
“You let your mistress into your company and gave her access to financial records?”
Grant flinched.
“I didn't know she'd do this.”
Claire pushed back from the island.
“You didn't know she would betray your business. You didn't know she would help you betray me. You didn't know anything, apparently.”
She stood carefully, one hand beneath her belly.
Then she swayed.
Grant reached for her, but she caught the counter.
“Don't.”
“Claire, you're pale.”
“I have a doctor's appointment at nine.”
“I'll take you.”
“No.”
The word was quiet and absolute.
Grant watched her leave the kitchen.
Twenty minutes later, Martin called again.
The money had been transferred to an account belonging to a shell corporation registered under the name of a woman who had died three years earlier.
The final authorization had come from Grant's own executive office.
And the security footage showed someone entering after midnight.
Someone wearing Claire's coat.
When Grant enlarged the image, he recognized the bracelet on the person's wrist.
May you like
It belonged to Paige.
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