Chapter 2
I stared at the statement.
“Eight million?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Transferred over eleven months.”
My hands tightened around Grace.
“That’s impossible.”
“No. It was hidden well.”
“To where?”
“Seven shell companies.”
“Julian?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I looked toward the hospital door through which my husband had just been escorted.
“He had access.”
“Limited access.”
I frowned.
Julian had been vice president of community development.
I gave him authority over projects.
Not unrestricted financial control.
Rebecca opened her laptop.
“The transactions required two approvals.”
“Whose?”
“One appears to be Julian’s.”
“And the second?”
She hesitated.
“Yours.”
My stomach dropped.
“I never approved them.”
“I know.”
“Then someone forged my authorization.”
Rebecca showed me electronic signatures attached to the transfers.
They looked legitimate.
My name.
My digital certificate.
Even security confirmations.
I whispered, “How?”
“That’s what we need to discover.”
Grace moved against my chest.
I looked down at her tiny face and forced myself to stay calm.
I had just given birth.
I could not feel my legs.
My husband had cheated on me, threatened me, and tried to steal my company.
Now millions were missing.
A detective named Marcus Bell entered.
“Mrs. Vance?”
“Yes.”
“We’d like to ask about your husband’s company access.”
Rebecca stopped him.
“She just delivered a baby.”
“I understand.”
“No lengthy interview.”
He nodded.
I answered what I could.
Then Bell showed me one transfer.
$750,000.
Approved while I was supposedly attending a board meeting in Chicago.
“I wasn’t in Chicago that day.”
Rebecca looked up.
“Where were you?”
“At home.”
Pregnant.
Sick.
Julian had told everyone I traveled because he had attended the meeting in my place.
Detective Bell wrote that down.
Another transfer happened while I was sleeping after an emergency hospital visit.
Another while I was at my father’s memorial service.
Someone had chosen moments when I was distracted.
Or vulnerable.
Then my phone rang.
My chief financial officer, Marcus Chen.
“Amelia, we have a problem.”
“What now?”
“Three senior managers just resigned.”
“All at once?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They received emails saying you were stepping down permanently.”
I felt cold.
“I sent no such email.”
“I know.”
“Who signed it?”
“You.”
Rebecca immediately asked him to forward it.
The message looked authentic.
It announced that Julian would assume executive control because of my “long-term neurological incapacity.”
I stared at those words.
Long-term.
My doctors had never said that.
Someone had prepared this before I delivered.
“How old is the document?” Rebecca asked.
Marcus checked metadata.
His voice changed.
“Created six weeks ago.”
Six weeks.
Before my complication.
Before anyone knew I might temporarily lose movement.
Rebecca and I looked at each other.
“This wasn’t opportunistic,” she whispered.
“No.”
Someone had expected me to become incapacitated.
Detective Bell heard us.
“What happened during delivery?”
I swallowed.
“My blood pressure crashed after an injection.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“What injection?”
“I don’t know.”
The detective stood.
“Mrs. Vance, I need the hospital to preserve every medication record immediately.”
My arms tightened around Grace.
May you like
Julian’s betrayal might not have started in my hospital room.
It might have started before I ever went into labor.
