Chapter 3 - What My Name Was Worth
Elena arrived at one in the morning carrying a laptop and wearing sneakers beneath her work pants.
She hugged me once.
Then she cleared Luz’s table.
“We separate what hurts from what can be proved.”
“My best friend is sleeping with my husband.”
“That hurts.”
“They forged my signature.”
“That we prove.”
She enlarged Rosa’s photograph.
My signature looked convincing.
The slant.
The long tail beneath the final letter.
Even the small break where my pen usually lifted.
“I signed a stack of campaign approvals before Paris,” I said.
“Who prepared them?”
“Claire.”
Elena looked at me.
I understood before she spoke.
“She had samples.”
“She’s had samples for six years.”
We called Nathan, my chief financial officer.
He sounded irritated until Elena explained why she was there.
Then I heard a chair scrape.
“I’m opening the files.”
“What did Leo submit?”
“A proposed investment through Harbor Crest Holdings.”
I had seen the name in emails.
A new strategic partner.
Private capital.
Fast expansion.
“How much?” I asked.
“Eight million dollars initially.”
“Initially?”
“There’s a bridge loan already in progress.”
Elena leaned forward.
“Secured against what?”
Nathan stopped typing.
“Nathan.”
“Company inventory. Receivables. And a personal guarantee.”
“Mine,” I said.
He didn’t answer.
“How far has it gone?”
“Final release is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, after board approval.”
Elena wrote the time down.
“Who owns Harbor Crest?”
“The paperwork names a director I don’t recognize.”
“Find the actual owners.”
“I’ll try.”
“No alerts,” Elena said. “Preserve records you’re authorized to access. Don’t change anything yet.”
Nathan hesitated.
“Mia, there’s another issue.”
I waited.
“Several payments to a consulting firm. Approved by Leo.”
“How many?”
“Six. Maybe more.”
“What firm?”
“Crown Advisory.”
I had never heard of it.
Across the table, Luz folded her hands.
I could tell she was listening to every word.
Elena asked Nathan to send the invoices and transaction records through a secure channel.
Then she turned to me.
“Who can approve major changes besides you?”
“Full board vote. But I hold sixty-two percent of the voting shares.”
“And Leo?”
“None.”
“Then he needs more than a husband’s title.”
“He has my trust,” I said.
Elena held my gaze.
“Tonight, that stopped being enough.”
My phone buzzed.
Claire.
A photograph of a hotel cocktail.
Wish you were here. Working late is killing me.
Behind her glass, reflected in a dark window, was the chandelier above my bed.
I stared until the image blurred.
Then Nathan sent the first invoice.
May you like
Crown Advisory’s registered business address appeared at the bottom.
It was Claire’s apartment.
