Chapter 8 - TWELVE PEOPLE, ONE TRAITOR
Sophie walked into the boardroom at 12:14 a.m.
Nobody knew why she had called everyone back.
Victor was gone.
Carter remained with his attorneys.
Madison sat alone near the window.
Sophie stood at the head of the table.
“My father left a recording.”
Several directors shifted.
“One of you had a relationship with Victor Vale that was never disclosed.”
Silence.
Helen Cho stared down the table.
Sophie continued.
“This person helped Victor manipulate Sterling Crown from the inside.”
Director Thomas Keene laughed.
“This is getting absurd.”
Sophie looked at him.
“Is it?”
“I’ve served this company for seventeen years.”
“Then you should want the truth.”
“I want stability.”
“People usually say that when the truth threatens them.”
Thomas stood.
“I won’t sit here while you throw accusations around because of some emotional recording from a dying man.”
Sophie looked at Daniel.
He tapped the wall screen.
A list of transactions appeared.
Thomas stopped talking.
Six payments.
Total value: $4.7 million.
From Vale Development Advisory.
To a private consulting company owned by Thomas’s wife.
Madison whispered, “Oh my God.”
Thomas turned pale.
“That is completely legitimate.”
Sophie folded her arms.
“Explain it.”
“My wife provides consulting services.”
“What kind?”
“Market research.”
“For four-point-seven million?”
Thomas pointed toward the screen.
“You don’t know the context.”
“Then give me the context.”
Thomas grabbed his laptop.
“I’m done.”
Security moved toward the door.
He stopped.
“What is this?”
“A request to stay.”
“You’re detaining me?”
“No. But if you leave, our attorneys will notify federal investigators that you refused to answer questions after we discovered undisclosed payments.”
Thomas stared at Sophie.
His hand tightened around the laptop.
Then something unexpected happened.
Carter laughed.
Everybody turned.
Thomas glared at him.
“What’s funny?”
Carter leaned back in his chair.
“You.”
Thomas’s face twisted.
Carter looked at Sophie.
“You want answers?”
His attorney grabbed his arm.
“Carter, don’t.”
Carter pulled away.
“Ask Thomas where the Blake Urban files came from.”
Thomas shouted, “Shut up.”
Sophie’s eyes moved between them.
Carter smiled.
“You think I created those shell companies?”
“Carter,” his lawyer warned.
“I signed the transfers,” Carter said. “But I wasn’t the architect.”
Thomas lunged across the table.
Security grabbed him.
Chairs crashed.
Madison screamed.
Thomas fought wildly.
“You stupid son of a bitch!”
Carter stood.
“Tell them, Tom.”
“You signed everything!”
“Because you told me Sterling Crown would cover the losses after the acquisition.”
Sophie’s stomach tightened.
“What losses?”
Carter looked at her.
His lawyer closed his eyes.
Carter finally said it.
“Blake Urban is broke.”
The room went dead silent.
“How broke?” Sophie asked.
Carter swallowed.
“Without your acquisition?”
“Yes.”
He looked at the floor.
“Forty-eight hours.”
Madison stared at him.
“You told me you were worth three hundred million dollars.”
Carter laughed bitterly.
“On paper.”
Sophie looked toward Thomas.
“What was the plan?”
Thomas said nothing.
Carter answered.
“Sterling Crown buys us for two hundred forty million. The missing money disappears inside the acquisition. Investors get paid. Lenders get paid.”
“And you?”
“I walk away rich.”
Madison stood slowly.
“You were going to marry me.”
Carter looked at her.
She understood.
The marriage had never been romance.
It was insurance.
Access to Victor.
Access to Sterling Crown.
Access to power.
Madison’s eyes filled with tears.
“You never loved me.”
Carter didn’t answer.
Then every phone in the boardroom buzzed at once.
Daniel looked down.
His face changed.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward Sophie.
BREAKING NEWS.
STERLING CROWN CEO SOPHIE REED ACCUSED OF COVERING UP SECOND FATAL CONSTRUCTION SCANDAL.
Sophie stared at the headline.
“Fatal?”
Daniel opened the article.
A photograph appeared.
A collapsed warehouse.
Three dead workers.
Date: fourteen years earlier.
May you like
Sophie had never seen it.
And according to the article, the warehouse belonged to a company secretly controlled by her father.
