Chapter 2 - THE WRONG ACCOUNT
I carried Leo into the nearest empty guest room and shut the door. Teresa followed, holding out her phone.
“I recorded part of it,” she said. “I heard her talking about Leo, and I didn’t know what else to do.”
On the screen, Victoria’s voice played clearly: “The baby is the only complication.”
Hearing it again made the room tilt.
“Send that to David,” I said. “Keep the original.”
Teresa nodded, then pointed toward the hallway. “She was talking to a man named Owen. I heard her say his name twice.”
Owen Price. Victoria’s former business partner. She had told me they’d stopped speaking a year ago.
My phone buzzed. A message from David:
DON’T SIGN ANYTHING. I’M COMING TO THE VENUE.
Another call came in, this one from my company’s chief financial officer, Marcus Bell.
“Julian,” he said, without greeting, “did you authorize a wire request against the Sterling family office?”
“No.”
“Someone submitted one twenty minutes ago. Three million dollars.”
My eyes went to the ceiling, to the ballroom beneath our feet. Victoria wasn’t waiting until after the wedding.
“Stop it.”
“It’s pending review. The request came with your digital approval.”
“That’s impossible.”
Marcus was quiet for a second. “It also came from your home office computer.”
Three days earlier, Victoria had spent the afternoon at my house while I was at work.
“What was the destination?” I asked.
“An account held by North Quay Holdings.”
I knew the name. Six months earlier, Owen Price had approached Sterling Developments about a waterfront property. I’d passed on the deal after my team found problems in the seller’s financial records.
Now Owen’s company was trying to take three million dollars from mine.
Behind me, Leo stirred. I looked at him and made myself speak slowly.
“Lock every account you can. Call our bank directly. And Marcus? Don’t tell anyone connected to Victoria.”
“I’m already on it.”
The call ended. I turned to Teresa.
“Take Leo to my mother. Stay with them both.”
She hesitated. “What about you?”
“I’m going to find out what else she touched.”
I opened the guest-room door.
May you like
Victoria stood at the other end of the hall, still holding her phone. She looked from me to Teresa, and her smile disappeared.
“How much did you hear?” she asked.
