Chapter 2
The first voicemail arrived seven minutes after Julian read my message.
"Clara, answer your phone. Right now."
His voice was sharp.
Not worried.
Not apologetic.
Angry.
I was sitting across from Mr. Bennett in his Manhattan office when I played it.
He raised one eyebrow.
"That sounds like a man discovering consequences."
I almost smiled.
Almost.
Then another message arrived.
"Clara, this is ridiculous. You can't interfere with company business because you're jealous."
I switched my phone off.
Mr. Bennett folded his hands on the desk.
"Before we discuss the financial investigation, I need to understand exactly what happened at the airport."
I told him everything.
Sienna's white dress.
The surprise ticket.
Julian's insistence that I was overreacting.
The matching bracelet.
By the time I finished, his expression had darkened.
"Clara, there's something I should have told you sooner."
My heartbeat quickened.
"What?"
He opened a thick folder.
On the first page was the name of my father's company.
Carter Holdings.
My father, Richard Carter, had built the company from a small construction business into a national commercial real estate group.
I had worked there since graduating college.
Five years earlier, after my mother died, Dad had transferred a controlling sixty-percent interest into a trust for my benefit.
The remaining shares belonged to him and several minority investors.
Julian had joined Carter Holdings three years before our wedding.
He was charming.
Ambitious.
Excellent with clients.
Within eighteen months, he had become chief operating officer.
And eventually, my fiancé.
I had trusted him with almost everything.
That was my first mistake.
Mr. Bennett slid a document toward me.
"Do you recognize this?"
It was a management authorization agreement.
Julian had presented it to me six weeks earlier.
He said it would allow him to handle routine decisions while we were on our honeymoon.
I remembered laughing.
"You really can't stop working for two weeks?"
He had kissed my forehead.
"Someone has to keep the empire running, sweetheart."
Now I stared at the document.
"I signed this."
"You signed a limited authorization," Mr. Bennett replied. "But a different version was submitted to our office yesterday."
My skin went cold.
"What do you mean, a different version?"
He placed two documents side by side.
The original gave Julian temporary authority to approve operating expenses below a specified limit.
The second appeared to grant him sweeping powers to transfer assets, approve major transactions, and exercise voting rights.
My signature appeared on both.
But I had never seen the second document.
"That isn't what I signed."
"I know."
"How?"
"Because your father insisted that we retain a witnessed electronic copy of the original."
I stared at him.
"Are you saying Julian forged my authorization?"
"I'm saying someone submitted an altered document bearing your signature. We need forensic confirmation before drawing legal conclusions."
My mouth went dry.
"And when was it submitted?"
"Yesterday evening."
During our wedding reception.
While I was dancing with my father.
I remembered Julian disappearing for nearly forty minutes.
He had claimed an investor needed an urgent call.
I felt physically sick.
Mr. Bennett continued.
"Your father noticed unusual financing requests last week. He asked me to examine them privately."
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"He wanted to avoid upsetting you before the wedding without proof."
I looked down.
"Dad suspected Julian?"
"He suspected something was wrong in the business."
A terrible possibility entered my mind.
"Does Dad know about Sienna?"
Mr. Bennett hesitated.
"Clara, your father has been worried about how Julian treats you."
I looked away.
I had spent two years defending my husband to the people who loved me most.
Every time Dad questioned a business decision, I accused him of being controlling.
Every time Olivia mentioned Sienna, I told her she was imagining things.
And every time Julian made me feel small, I explained it away.
I covered my face.
"I was so stupid."
"Trusting your spouse isn't stupidity," Mr. Bennett said. "But now we need evidence, not guilt."
He pushed another folder toward me.
It contained a list of suspicious transactions.
I scanned the numbers.
Two hundred thousand.
Four hundred fifty thousand.
Nine hundred thousand.
All paid to consulting businesses I didn't recognize.
"Who approved these?"
"Most appear connected to accounts within Julian's authority. Several have Sienna's administrative credentials attached."
I looked up sharply.
"Sienna?"
"Yes."
The woman who had smiled at me in the airport had access to far more than Julian's calendar.
"How much money are we talking about?"
"Our preliminary concerns involve approximately twenty million dollars in transactions. That doesn't mean all of it is missing. We haven't determined what services were actually provided."
Twenty million.
I couldn't breathe.
"My father's company?"
"We're still tracing the funds."
I stood and walked toward the window.
Below me, traffic moved through Manhattan as though nothing had changed.
Yesterday, I had been a bride.
Today, I was discovering that my husband might have been using our marriage to gain control of my family's business.
My phone vibrated again.
This time, the message came from Sienna.
"Clara, you are humiliating Julian. A mature wife would understand that powerful men have responsibilities. Please stop behaving emotionally."
I stared at it.
Then I handed the phone to Mr. Bennett.
"Save that."
He nodded.
Another message followed.
"You can't keep Julian away from what belongs to him."
My chest tightened.
What belongs to him.
Not what belongs to us.
Not what belongs to the company.
Him.
Mr. Bennett photographed the screen.
"Don't answer."
I sat down slowly.
"What happens now?"
"We preserve the evidence, notify the board, restrict questionable access, and involve independent investigators. If criminal activity is established, we'll report it to the proper authorities."
"And the document?"
"We challenge its authenticity immediately."
I nodded.
For the first time that day, I felt fear.
Not because Julian was angry.
Because I finally understood why he had rushed our wedding.
Three months earlier, he had insisted on moving the ceremony forward.
He claimed he couldn't wait to make me his wife.
Now I wondered whether romance had anything to do with it.
My phone rang.
Dad.
I answered.
"Sweetheart?"
His voice broke something inside me.
"Dad."
"Mr. Bennett told me you're back in New York."
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For marrying him. For not listening."
There was a long silence.
Then Dad said something I would remember forever.
"Clara, come home. Nothing you have done could ever make you unwelcome here."
I began crying.
Really crying.
For the first time since the airport.
"I don't know what to do."
"Come home first. We'll figure out the rest."
After the call, Mr. Bennett handed me one final document.
"There's another issue."
I wiped my face.
"What now?"
He pointed to a company name.
Pacific Meridian Investments.
"One of the suspicious transfers was scheduled to close this morning."
"How much?"
"Eight million dollars."
My stomach twisted.
"To whom?"
"We haven't confirmed the beneficial owner yet."
I stared at the name.
Pacific.
Hawaii.
The honeymoon.
Suddenly, the destination no longer seemed random.
Mr. Bennett watched my expression change.
"What are you thinking?"
I whispered the question that terrified me.
"What if Julian didn't bring Sienna to Maui because he couldn't leave work behind?"
He leaned forward.
"What do you mean?"
"What if they went there to finish something?"
At that exact moment, an encrypted email arrived from the company's external auditor.
Mr. Bennett opened it.
Then went completely still.
"Clara."
I looked at him.
"What?"
He turned the monitor toward me.
The email contained preliminary incorporation records for Pacific Meridian Investments.
Listed among its former authorized representatives was a familiar name.
Sienna Brooks.
And attached to the company's formation documents was a handwritten note.
A note signed with my husband's initials.
"Complete acquisition immediately after wedding."
I stared at those words.
May you like
My marriage hadn't interrupted their business plans.
It had been part of them.
