Chapter 13 - THE NAME ABOVE THE COMPANY
Everyone looked at William.
He went still.
“No.”
Peter laughed from the floor.
William stepped closer.
“No.”
Peter looked at him.
“Your father.”
William Hawthorne’s face collapsed.
His father, Henry Hawthorne, had founded the company forty years earlier.
A respected businessman.
A philanthropist.
A man with a hospital wing named after him.
A man who had died six months ago.
William whispered, “My father knew?”
Peter smiled.
“Your father built the system.”
Caroline arrived with police behind her.
She heard everything.
Peter continued.
“Grant found the invoices.”
Grant shouted from the floor.
“I didn’t create them!”
Peter laughed.
“No. You just stole from the thief.”
I stared at Grant.
He looked away.
Peter explained.
Henry Hawthorne had spent years inflating subcontractor costs.
Peter approved the payments.
Fake vendors received the money.
Grant discovered the scheme and demanded a cut.
My father discovered Grant’s cut.
Then he discovered everything.
William looked sick.
“How much?”
Peter smiled.
“Over twenty years?”
He coughed.
“More than sixty million.”
Caroline covered her mouth.
William staggered backward.
“All this time…”
Peter looked at him.
“You inherited more than a company.”
Police took Peter away.
Grant went with him.
Sophie and I were brought downstairs.
Mom ran toward us.
She crushed Sophie against her chest.
Then she held me.
For once, I let her.
Grant passed us in handcuffs.
Mom looked at him.
He stopped.
“You knew Peter killed Michael?”
Grant said nothing.
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
Mom slapped him.
Hard.
Everyone froze.
Grant slowly turned his face back toward her.
Mom’s voice shook.
“You let me marry you.”
He laughed softly.
“You chose to.”
She looked like he had stabbed her.
He was right about one thing.
She had chosen.
Not knowing the whole truth.
But ignoring enough of it.
Grant looked at me.
“I didn’t kill your father.”
“You chased him.”
“I wanted the documents.”
“You ran him off the road.”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
“And you left him there.”
Grant said nothing.
That was his answer.
As police led him away, William approached me.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
“For what?”
“My family.”
“You didn’t do it.”
“My name paid for it.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
He stared at the unfinished tower.
“No.”
Then he looked at me.
“But I’m going to make sure the ending is different.”
Three days later, Hawthorne Development made a public announcement.
William froze every promotion.
Opened the company books.
Invited federal investigators.
And released a statement acknowledging decades of possible fraud.
Then, one week later, a reporter called me.
“Emma, did you know your mother received $250,000 from Hawthorne Development after your father died?”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
The reporter continued.
“The payment was approved personally by Henry Hawthorne.”
I looked toward Mom.
May you like
She was standing across the kitchen.
And from the way her face changed, I knew the reporter wasn’t lying.
