Chapter 6 - The Friend Who Wanted Everything
Ben didn't sleep that night.
Neither did I.
At six in the morning, I found him sitting in the kitchen with the original investment agreement spread across the table.
He looked older.
Not physically.
Something in his expression had changed.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.
I poured coffee.
"Because I wanted you to believe you had earned your success."
"I did earn it."
"You did. But you didn't do it alone."
He looked down.
"How much of Northline belongs to Kendall Ridge?"
"Twenty-eight percent in preferred equity. More under certain conversion conditions."
"And you control Kendall Ridge."
"Yes."
He let out a slow breath.
"All these years..."
"All these years, I built something of my own while you built something of yours."
"Why did you keep it secret?"
"At first, because I didn't want you to feel like you owed me. Later, because I wanted to see whether you could be proud of me without needing to be the bigger person in the room."
He looked at me.
"And was I?"
I didn't answer.
His phone rang.
Eric.
Ben stared at it before answering.
"Where are you?"
"Office," Eric replied.
"We need to talk."
"About what?"
"The original investor agreement."
A pause.
Then Eric laughed.
"Ben, don't let your wife turn a personal argument into a corporate crisis."
"My wife?"
"Come on. She's upset. She's making threats. You need to get control of the situation."
Ben's face hardened.
"Did you alter the agreement?"
Another silence.
"Meet me at the office," Eric said.
He hung up.
Ben looked at me.
"I'm going."
"Take Rebecca's contact information."
"Why?"
"Because if Eric has altered company records, you need independent counsel."
He nodded slowly.
For the first time in months, he listened.
At ten, Ben and Eric met in Northline's boardroom.
I wasn't there.
But Rebecca had arranged for the financial review to be conducted simultaneously, with the consent of the independent directors.
Daniel called me shortly after noon.
"Laura, we've found the original transaction."
"Tell me."
"Eric used an unauthorized digital certificate to alter the agreement. He removed Kendall Ridge's voting protections and transferred a portion of the economic rights to Blackstone Meridian."
"How much?"
"Enough to create a serious dispute over control."
"Can he do that?"
"Not legally."
I closed my eyes.
"Where is Ben?"
"In the boardroom."
Then I heard shouting through the phone.
Ben's voice.
"YOU TOLD ME THE MONEY WAS YOURS!"
Eric answered calmly.
"Lower your voice."
"Did you use my company to pay yourself?"
"I kept the business alive."
"You transferred our assets."
"I protected them."
"From whom?"
A pause.
Then Eric said something that made my stomach tighten.
"From your wife."
The line went quiet.
Daniel whispered, "Laura, I think you need to come here."
I drove to Manhattan.
When I arrived, Ben was standing outside the boardroom.
His face was white with anger.
Eric sat at the table.
A lawyer I didn't recognize was beside him.
Ben looked at me.
"He's been lying to me for years."
Eric smiled faintly.
"That's a dramatic interpretation."
I placed my handbag on the chair.
"Then let's look at the documents."
The forensic examiner displayed the original agreement on the screen.
There were two versions.
One signed by me.
One altered afterward.
Eric's attorney began objecting.
But the examiner continued.
The digital audit trail showed the changes had been made using credentials issued to Eric's former assistant.
Then Daniel displayed a series of bank transfers.
Money had moved from Northline to Blackstone Meridian.
From there, it had gone into several private accounts.
One account belonged to Eric.
Another belonged to an entity controlled by Ben's father.
I looked at Ben.
"Your father?"
He shook his head.
"That's impossible."
His father had died years earlier.
Rebecca examined the records.
"Not necessarily. The account could have been established through his estate."
Then she enlarged the transaction history.
There was a transfer made three weeks earlier.
A payment of $180,000.
The recipient's name was unfamiliar.
But the memo line was clear.
Personal settlement — Kendall family.
Ben stepped toward the screen.
"What settlement?"
Eric finally stopped smiling.
"That's none of your business."
Ben stared at him.
"You're stealing from my company and telling me it's none of my business?"
Eric stood.
"Your company? I built half of what you're sitting on."
"No. My wife financed it."
"Your wife financed it because she wanted control."
I watched Ben's face.
Eric leaned forward.
"She never told you the truth, did she?"
"What truth?"
Eric smiled.
"Ask her what happened to the original voting agreement."
Ben turned toward me.
I felt the weight of the room shift.
Because there was something I hadn't told him.
May you like
Something even Kendall Ridge's board didn't fully understand.
And Eric knew it.
