Chapter 9 - The Company Under My Name
By eight that morning, Priya and Helen had assembled a sealed war room inside our headquarters.
We traced every early investor transaction involving Sterling Meridian.
The pattern was ugly.
Shell companies bought distressed founders' shares at impossible speed. Signatures appeared on weekends. Two notarizations came from a lawyer later disbarred for fraud.
And one name repeated across seven transactions.
Martin Vale.
My former chief financial officer.
The man who had walked me down the aisle at my first wedding after my father died.
"Call him," I said.
Helen shook her head. "Not yet. Preserve first. Confront second."
"Adrienne, look at this."
A payment from Sterling Meridian had gone to Vale Consulting three days after Caleb's fatal crash.
Two million dollars.
My stomach turned.
"For what?"
"No invoice attached."
Grace arrived at headquarters just before noon with her arm bandaged and Marcus beside her.
"My mom says your fiancée hurt Grandma Eleanor," he said.
Grace touched his shoulder. "Marcus."
"She did."
"I'm sorry you had to hear about it."
He stared at me.
"My dad knew you."
"I just found that out."
Marcus reached into his backpack.
"Then maybe this is yours."
I recognized it.
It had sat on my father's desk for years.
"Where did you get this?"
"Dad gave it to me before he died. Mom thought it was just a toy."
Marcus twisted the base.
Grace covered her mouth.
"Caleb never told me."
Marcus looked at the key, then at me.
"He did tell me one thing. He said if a lady named Eleanor ever asked about the knight, I should give it to her."
My mother had never asked.
Engraved along the key's stem were three characters.
B-417.
Miles searched the code.
It matched a private safe-deposit facility downtown.
May you like
Box 417 had been paid in advance for fifteen years.
The lessee was Caleb Bennett.
