Chapter 3 - I Let Them Believe I Was Weak
The next morning, I called a lawyer Daniel did not know.
Her name was Naomi Pierce.
She had represented my father during the company’s first hostile takeover.
Naomi was sixty-two, brutally intelligent, and completely unimpressed by powerful men.
When I finished telling her what I had heard, she leaned back in her chair.
“Do you want a divorce?”
“I want proof.”
“That was not my question.”
“I want him to lose everything he tried to steal.”
Naomi studied me carefully.
“That can be arranged.”
She hired a forensic accountant.
She brought in a private investigator.
She replaced two members of my household security team with people loyal only to me.
Most importantly, she told me to continue acting confused.
So I did.
I misplaced my purse when Daniel was watching.
I repeated questions I remembered perfectly.
I allowed Margaret to speak slowly to me as though I were a child.
At a family dinner, I deliberately called Wednesday “Thursday.”
Margaret exchanged a pleased look with Daniel.
Later that evening, I heard her whispering in the hallway.
“She’s getting worse.”
“Give it time,” Daniel said.
“The doctors will have no choice.”
Sloane became more confident.
She wore Daniel’s favorite perfume inside my house.
She borrowed my dresses without asking.
She sat in my chair at the dining table.
Once, I caught her staring at my wedding portrait.
“You looked beautiful,” she said.
“Thank you.”
“I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to have your life.”
I met her eyes in the mirror.
“You may find out.”
She smiled because she thought I meant it kindly.
I smiled because I knew she was already standing inside a trap.
The forensic accountant discovered the first stolen payment three weeks later.
Daniel had created a consulting firm called Northstar Strategic Holdings.
Northstar had no employees.
It had no real office.
It had received $4.8 million from Hartwell Medical Systems.
The company was registered under Sloane’s brother’s name.
Further investigation revealed eleven more transfers.
The total was $18.6 million.
Daniel had not only betrayed me.
He had stolen from thousands of employees and investors.
Naomi placed the financial report on her desk.
“We can take this to law enforcement now.”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because he still thinks he’s smarter than me.”
Naomi’s expression hardened.
“That is dangerous.”
“No.”
May you like
I closed the report.
“That is useful.”
