Chapter 16 - The Name on the List
The safe-deposit box contained forty-seven pages of records.
Cash payments.
Consulting contracts.
Fake appraisal fees.
Political donations.
And one name I did not expect.
Paul Reeves.
My security director.
The man who had protected me for nine years.
The man who knew I planned to arrive at the engagement party disguised and alone.
The man I had trusted to secure Daniel after his warning.
My stomach turned.
Paul had not stolen millions.
He had accepted fifty thousand dollars.
For information.
My schedule.
Gate routes.
Which car I drove when I traveled without security.
That was enough.
I called him into headquarters without warning.
He entered my office and saw Nina, two federal agents, and me.
His face collapsed.
"Margaret—"
"Don't."
He sat.
His daughter had a gambling addiction. He had covered her debts. Then George offered to make the rest disappear.
Again, need became the first excuse.
"Did you know Vanessa would attack me?"
"No."
"Did you know they wanted to keep me away from Ethan?"
"Yes."
"Did you know they were committing fraud?"
He looked down.
"I suspected."
I felt colder than I had under the hose.
"You were paid to protect me."
"I know."
"You were paid by me to protect information you sold to them."
He began crying.
I did not comfort him.
The agents took him out.
That afternoon, the Atlanta loan committee formally rejected Mitchell Development's application.
Before sunset, two other lenders froze their loans too.
George's house of paper began collapsing.
Then Patricia called me directly.
"You've destroyed my family."
I said, "No. I stopped financing the destruction you already built."
She laughed bitterly.
"You think this ends with George?"
May you like
Then she told me to check Ethan's apartment.
"Your son signed something after all.
