Chapter 7 - Six More Lies.
.The first of the six documents said Emily Carter had been terminated for theft.
Richard read that sentence twice.
Then he sat down.
David Kessler remained on speakerphone, his usually polished legal voice stripped of its confidence.
“I need you to understand that I did not prepare these personally.”
Richard stared at the document on Daniel’s tablet.
“Your firm’s name is on every page.”
“Yes.”
“Your electronic approval stamp is on two of them.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re telling me you didn’t know?”
“I’m telling you I believed they came from you.”
Richard’s laugh had no humor in it.
“That sentence is becoming popular today.”
Emily stood near the study window with the boys.
She had made them turkey sandwiches because no one else remembered lunch.
The normal act felt almost rebellious.
Noah sat cross-legged on the rug with his plate balanced on his knees.
Liam had finally put on shoes.
Ethan kept watching Richard instead of eating.
Claire shared the six documents on the large monitor one at a time.
The first was Emily’s termination record.
The second was an emergency household staffing notice stating that the children’s primary caregiver had been removed for misconduct.
The third was the St. Aldwyn’s placement request.
The fourth was the temporary guardianship declaration.
The fifth amended the education trust.
The sixth authorized a group of “family transition consultants” to provide travel, tutoring, residential coordination, and therapeutic support.
Emily looked at the name of the consulting company.
“Northstar Family Solutions.”
Claire nodded.
“Registered four months ago.”
“Who owns it?” Richard asked.
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“A Delaware company owned by the same Nevada holding company connected to Victoria.”
Richard leaned back in his chair.
“So she removes Emily.”
His voice was low and methodical now.
“She creates a record that the boys suddenly lost their caregiver.”
Claire nodded.
“She claims the home is unstable.”
Daniel added, “Then the residential school becomes a temporary solution.”
Emily finished the sequence.
“And once the boys are accepted, the trust amendment activates.”
Richard looked at her.
“And Victoria controls the spending.”
Noah raised his head.
“Why does Miss Victoria want our school money?”
The adults went silent.
Emily wished they had remembered the children could hear every word.
Richard got up and crossed the room.
“You do not need to worry about that.”
Noah frowned.
“But you are worried.”
Richard almost smiled at the accuracy.
“Yes.”
“Then I am worried too.”
Richard crouched beside him.
“That makes sense.”
He paused.
“But I am fixing it.”
Noah looked toward Emily.
She nodded once.
“He is.”
Only then did Noah take another bite of his sandwich.
Richard noticed the exchange.
Again, he did not look offended.
He looked ashamed of how much credibility he had lost inside his own family.
David cleared his throat through the phone.
“There’s another issue.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Of course.”
“The termination notice contains a witness certification.”
“Whose?”
“Victoria’s.”
“That’s not another issue.”
“It is because it was notarized.”
Richard looked up.
“By whom?”
“A mobile notary named Karen Pike.”
Claire interrupted.
“I already checked.”
Everyone looked at the monitor.
“Karen Pike says she never came to the house.”
David said nothing.
Claire continued.
“Her notary commission number is real, but she says the stamp on the scan is not hers.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“So someone copied it.”
“Apparently.”
Emily folded her arms.
“How many people had to ignore obvious questions for Victoria to get this far?”
No one answered.
That was answer enough.
A billionaire’s household had layers of protection.
Assistants.
Lawyers.
Security officers.
Bankers.
Trustees.
Yet Victoria had discovered the weakness inside every system.
People assumed someone else had checked.
Richard stared at David’s name on the phone display.
“How did these requests reach your firm?”
David hesitated.
“Through the client portal.”
“My login?”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
“We’re checking.”
Daniel spoke.
“Send me the access logs.”
David did not respond immediately.
Richard’s voice hardened.
“Send him the logs.”
“I’ll have IT provide them.”
“Now.”
David exhaled.
“Richard, my firm is exposed here too.”
Richard stared at the phone.
“My children were almost put on a path to another country using documents I never approved, and you are worried about exposure?”
“I am trying to explain why I need to proceed carefully.”
“No.”
Richard’s voice became dangerously calm.
“You need to proceed quickly.”
Emily watched him and thought about the man who had refused to check one camera before throwing her out.
The lesson had arrived with brutal efficiency.
Facts were slow only when people chose not to look for them.
Daniel’s tablet chimed.
“The access logs just came in.”
He scanned the screen.
His eyebrows lifted.
“What?” Richard asked.
Daniel turned the tablet around.
“The portal was accessed twelve times in the last month.”
“From Victoria’s tablet?”
“Some of them.”
“And the others?”
Daniel zoomed in.
“From an IP address at the Hawthorne downtown office.”
Claire’s expression changed on the monitor.
“That is impossible.”
“Why?”
“Victoria does not have an office badge.”
Richard looked at her.
“Could she enter as my guest?”
“Yes, but every visit would be logged.”
“Check.”
Claire typed quickly.
Her face grew more concerned.
“She was there twice.”
“When?”
“March fourth and March nineteenth.”
Daniel shook his head.
“The portal accesses from downtown were April.”
“So it wasn’t her?” Emily asked.
Daniel looked at the screen.
“Not physically, unless she had someone inside.”
Richard’s expression became unreadable.
The betrayal had just expanded beyond his home.
Claire stared into the camera.
“I can trace the office workstation.”
“Do it.”
She disappeared from the call for several minutes.
Emily used the time to take the boys upstairs to wash their hands.
Richard followed them to the hallway.
“Emily.”
She stopped.
He lowered his voice so the boys would not hear.
“I owe you an apology that is too large for a hallway.”
She looked at him.
“Yes.”
He accepted that.
“I also know apologizing now could sound like I’m asking you to stay.”
“You are.”
His mouth tightened.
“I want you to stay because they feel safe with you.”
Emily looked toward the stairs where the boys waited.
“And what happens when this is over?”
Richard did not answer quickly.
“That is not a trick question,” she said.
“I know.”
“Because I will not come back so you can return to your old life.”
His eyes lowered.
“I don’t think my old life exists anymore.”
Emily almost felt sorry for him.
Then she remembered the money on the dining room floor.
She walked upstairs.
When she returned ten minutes later, Claire was back on the monitor.
She looked stunned.
“I found the workstation.”
Richard stood.
“Whose?”
Claire did not answer immediately.
Then she said, “Mine.”
Everyone looked at her.
Claire’s face had gone white.
“I did not access your legal portal.”
Richard studied her.
Claire’s voice shook for the first time Emily had ever heard.
“Someone used my computer.”
Daniel asked, “Who has access to your office?”
“Cleaning staff, IT, security, executives with master access.”
Richard looked at Daniel.
“Pull building cameras.”
Daniel was already typing.
Claire looked hurt.
“Richard, I swear to you.”
He met her eyes through the screen.
“I believe you.”
Claire visibly exhaled.
Emily noticed the difference.
Richard had just extended trust without complete proof.
Not blind trust.
Trust based on years of character while evidence was gathered.
It was exactly what he had denied Emily.
He seemed to realize it too.
Their eyes met.
Neither said anything.
Daniel found the date of the first office login.
“April third, 8:47 p.m.”
Claire frowned.
“I left at six.”
“Who stayed late?”
Claire checked the building roster.
Her eyes stopped moving.
“What?” Richard asked.
Claire looked at him.
“Your chief financial officer.”
Richard stared at the screen.
“Graham?”
Claire nodded.
Emily knew Graham Mercer only by reputation.
He had been Richard’s friend since college.
He had helped build Hawthorne Technologies from the beginning.
He had stood beside Richard at the hospital when the triplets were born.
Richard’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Graham has known my boys since the day they were born.”
Daniel looked at the access log again.
“And someone using Claire’s workstation entered your legal portal three times while he was the only executive logged on that floor.”
Richard’s face went empty.
May you like
The threat was no longer a woman he had known for two years.
It was a man he had trusted for twenty.
