Chapter 4 - THE DOCTOR'S LAST WARNING
Victor didn't deny the breeding arrangement.
That frightened me.
Instead, he looked at Alexander and said something I hadn't expected.
“You always said the racing division needed to pay for itself.”
Alexander stared at him.
“Not by selling animals behind my back.”
“Then perhaps you should have listened when I told you we were losing money.”
For a moment, the brothers looked less like powerful men and more like two boys who had spent their childhood competing for their father's approval.
But Golden Promise was standing in a veterinary stall with a newborn foal.
And I had nearly lost my livelihood because of their secrets.
I wasn't interested in another family argument.
“Dr. Reed knew something was wrong,” I said. “That's why he kept those notes.”
Dr. Bell nodded.
“Samuel was meticulous. He wouldn't have written that warning without a reason.”
She turned another page.
A small photograph fell from the notebook.
I picked it up.
The picture showed Golden Promise standing in a green Kentucky pasture.
Beside her was a smiling woman holding a little girl.
The woman had beautiful dark hair.
The child couldn't have been older than four.
Alexander stopped breathing for a moment.
“Julia.”
I looked at him.
“My wife.”
Lucy’s mother.
Julia Kessler had died three years earlier after a sudden illness.
I'd known her only briefly.
She had visited the stables occasionally, usually bringing Lucy and a basket of apples for the horses.
I remembered how she had laughed when Golden Promise refused to eat a carrot until Lucy handed it to her.
Alexander took the photograph carefully.
“Julia loved this mare.”
His thumb moved across the edge.
“She wanted to build a riding center for children recovering from serious injuries.”
I thought of Max.
The afternoons he'd cried because his leg wouldn't do what he wanted.
The humiliating moments when strangers stared at his brace.
“That's why you're hosting the retirement celebration?” I asked.
Alexander nodded.
“Tonight was supposed to announce the Golden Promise Riding Center. Julia designed the first plans herself.”
Victor made a bitter sound.
“Plans don't pay salaries, Alexander.”
Alexander turned.
“What salaries?”
Victor looked away.
Caleb placed several financial reports on the desk.
The documents came from the family's racing division.
Three months earlier, money had begun disappearing from accounts originally reserved for the riding center.
Some transfers were small.
Others exceeded two hundred thousand dollars.
I couldn't understand every line.
But I understood the destination.
Kessler River Freight.
One of the transportation companies Alexander controlled.
“Why is money for disabled children going into freight operations?” I asked.
Victor's jaw tightened.
“Because seventy-four people were about to lose their jobs.”
Alexander looked up sharply.
“What?”
“One of our terminals needed major repairs. Insurance wouldn't cover the full cost. The bank refused additional credit.”
“You should have told me.”
“I did.”
Alexander went silent.
Victor laughed without humor.
“Three times. You told me the company had to survive without another bailout.”
Alexander looked down.
The memory seemed to hurt.
“I told you to bring me a complete financial plan.”
“And while I was preparing one, creditors were threatening to shut us down.”
For one moment, I saw something beneath Victor's arrogance.
Fear.
Not the fear of losing a horse.
The fear of being the brother who failed.
But fear didn't explain the fake veterinarian's signature.
Or my stolen identity.
Or a newborn foal nearly separated from its mother.
“Then why frame me?” I asked.
Victor said nothing.
Caleb continued examining the records.
“Sir, we've traced the payment from Dubai.”
Alexander straightened.
“The $6.8 million?”
“Yes. It entered the racing division's special account six weeks ago.”
“Where is it now?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Most of it was transferred again.”
“To the freight company?”
“Some.”
He opened another record.
Nearly two million dollars had been distributed to freight payroll and overdue operating expenses.
Another substantial amount had gone to repair contractors.
But not all of it.
Alexander pointed toward a remaining transfer.
“What's Red Hollow Holdings?”
Victor looked toward the door.
Caleb stepped into his path.
“It's a property company,” Caleb answered.
“Who owns it?”
“We're still verifying that.”
I turned back to Dr. Reed's notebook.
A final folded page had been tucked into the rear cover.
It contained the doctor's handwritten instructions for caring for Golden Promise during her pregnancy.
At the bottom, he'd written something else.
Do not release the mare or any offspring until the ownership restrictions have been independently confirmed.
I looked at Alexander.
“Ownership restrictions?”
He frowned.
“Golden Promise belongs to my family.”
Dr. Bell shook her head slowly.
“Samuel apparently believed it was more complicated than that.”
Caleb returned to the racing division's financial summary.
He checked the dedicated account for Julia's riding center.
Then his expression changed.
“Alexander.”
“What?”
“The donations already collected for tonight's celebration were supposed to remain untouched.”
“How much?”
“Just over $1.3 million.”
Alexander stepped closer.
May you like
Caleb turned the screen.
“As of four days ago, the riding center's account was nearly empty.”
