Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE SIGNATURE
“Britney had access to my private financial records?”
Simone's voice was so quiet that Margaret leaned forward to hear her.
“Apparently, yes.”
“How?”
“We're still tracing the source.”
Simone placed the fraudulent authorization request on the conference table.
She could tolerate heartbreak.
She could even tolerate humiliation.
But someone had entered the private financial world she had spent seventeen years building and tried to use her identity.
That was no longer a marital dispute.
“Preserve everything,” she said.
Margaret nodded.
“And don't contact Britney yet.”
“Agreed.”
“Or Gregory.”
Margaret hesitated.
“Simone, if this is what it appears to be, you need independent legal counsel before either of them knows we discovered it.”
Simone looked toward the windows.
Chicago glittered beneath the dark October sky.
Somewhere beyond those lights, her husband was probably asleep in her bed.
With Britney.
And perhaps he believed tomorrow would bring him a fortune.
At 7:15 the next morning, Gregory walked into Halston Creative carrying a coffee and wearing the navy suit Simone had bought him for their seventh anniversary.
He was expecting congratulations.
Instead, the office was silent.
His assistant, Lauren Price, stood outside his door.
“Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Halston needs to see you.”
“Can it wait? I've got the Northbridge announcement.”
“No, sir.”
Gregory frowned.
Inside the conference room, three people sat around the table.
Robert Halston.
The company's general counsel.
And Northbridge's chief financial officer.
Robert looked exhausted.
“Close the door, Greg.”
Gregory obeyed.
“What's going on?”
The CFO slid a document toward him.
“Ellis Meridian Capital has withdrawn the proposed financing package from tomorrow's closing.”
Gregory laughed.
“That can't be right.”
“It is.”
“All four hundred fifty million?”
“The package, yes.”
Gregory stared.
“But that's impossible. I arranged that capital.”
The CFO looked at him.
“Then perhaps you can explain why your name doesn't appear on any of the original investment authorizations.”
Gregory's expression shifted.
“I was the relationship contact.”
“No,” Robert said. “You told us you controlled the relationship.”
“I do.”
The general counsel folded his hands.
“Who at Ellis Meridian did you speak to?”
Gregory hesitated.
“Several people.”
“Names?”
He could feel the room changing around him.
“I'd have to check my notes.”
Robert leaned back.
“Greg, you told me you could guarantee this financing.”
“I said I had influence.”
“You said your investors trusted you personally.”
“They do.”
The CFO opened another folder.
“Then perhaps you should call the managing principal.”
Gregory reached for his phone.
He searched the company website.
Ellis Meridian's public page contained almost no executive information beyond two managing directors.
At the bottom, beneath a small corporate biography, was a line he had never bothered to read.
Founded by Simone Ellis.
He stared at the name.
Simone Ellis.
His wife's maiden name.
A cold sensation spread across his chest.
“No.”
Robert watched him.
“Gregory?”
He clicked the founder biography.
There was no recent photograph.
Only a short description of an entrepreneur who had built a logistics technology business before creating a private investment firm.
The same story Simone had told him years ago.
He had simply never listened closely enough to understand it.
“My wife,” he whispered.
Robert frowned.
“What?”
Gregory looked up.
“My wife owns Ellis Meridian.”
Silence.
Then the general counsel said something that made Gregory feel smaller than he had ever felt in his life.
“Your wife doesn't own the entire fund personally. But she controls the managing entity and founded the firm. And according to our records, your relationship with her was never disclosed to the acquisition committee.”
At 9:40 a.m., Simone sat across from attorney Rebecca Hayes.
Rebecca specialized in complex commercial disputes and had worked with Simone's firm for six years.
She was also a divorced mother who had little patience for people who used legal terminology to disguise ordinary cruelty.
“We need to separate three issues,” Rebecca said.
“Go ahead.”
“Your marriage. The house and personal assets. And the potentially fraudulent corporate conduct.”
Simone nodded.
“The marriage is over.”
Rebecca studied her.
“Are you certain?”
“I was certain the moment Gregory told me to leave.”
“Then we'll proceed carefully.”
Rebecca looked at the forged trust authorization.
“Did Gregory have access to your identification?”
“He knew where I kept personal papers.”
“Passwords?”
“Not investment passwords. But he knew our household security information.”
“And Britney?”
“I met her twice.”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow.
“Only twice?”
“At office functions. Gregory said she handled client communications.”
“Did he mention she had financial training?”
“No.”
Rebecca turned her laptop.
A professional biography appeared.
Britney Lawson, thirty-four.
Former compliance analyst.
Previously employed by Westlake Fiduciary Services.
Simone's stomach tightened.
Westlake had once administered one of her family's smaller trusts.
“That's how she knew,” Simone said.
Rebecca nodded.
“Possibly. But knowing a trust exists is different from obtaining current documents.”
She pointed to a date.
“Britney left Westlake eighteen months ago.”
Simone counted backward.
“Gregory's affair started before that.”
“We don't know that yet.”
Simone looked down.
On Britney's public professional page was a photograph from a charity fundraiser.
Britney stood beside Gregory.
His hand rested on her back.
The photograph was dated fourteen months earlier.
Simone remembered that evening.
She had been in Boston visiting a factory Ellis Meridian was considering rescuing from bankruptcy.
Gregory had complained about going to the fundraiser alone.
He had sounded lonely.
She had apologized.
Now she wondered what else she had apologized for unnecessarily.
Rebecca closed the laptop.
“There's another complication.”
“What?”
“Your house.”
Simone frowned.
“I bought it before the marriage.”
“Yes. But three years ago, Gregory signed a home equity application.”
“He mentioned refinancing his personal debt. I told him I wouldn't use the house.”
“He never completed that loan. However, someone subsequently submitted a proposed ownership amendment to the title company.”
Simone went still.
“What amendment?”
“One adding Gregory as a joint owner.”
“Was it recorded?”
“No. It was rejected because the supporting authorization was incomplete.”
Simone exhaled.
Then Rebecca continued.
“The request used the same electronic signature provider as the trust document.”
Simone stared at her.
“So this wasn't just about Northbridge.”
“No.”
Rebecca's expression grew serious.
“Someone has been trying to establish control over your personal and business assets for months.”
At noon, Gregory appeared in the lobby of Ellis Meridian.
He had called Simone eleven times.
She had not answered.
The receptionist informed him that Simone was unavailable.
Gregory demanded to see her.
Security asked him to lower his voice.
“I am her husband!”
A calm voice came from behind him.
“Then perhaps you should have treated her like one.”
Margaret stood beside the elevator.
Gregory turned.
“I need to speak to Simone.”
“She'll communicate through the appropriate channels.”
“You can't keep a man away from his wife.”
“No one is preventing you from communicating lawfully.”
“She's destroying my career.”
Margaret regarded him.
“Your career is not an asset she has agreed to insure against your decisions.”
Gregory's face reddened.
“She promised to support me.”
“And she did.”
Margaret stepped closer.
“More than you know.”
Gregory looked at the floor.
For the first time, he understood that the woman he'd called ambitious, distracted, and emotionally unavailable had quietly been the source of opportunities he believed he'd earned alone.
But embarrassment quickly became anger.
“She should have told me.”
Margaret's expression hardened.
“Would you have respected her more if you knew the number?”
He could not answer.
His phone vibrated.
Britney.
Don't say anything about Westlake. We need to discuss the original agreement.
Gregory stared at the message.
Original agreement?
Before he could reply, another message appeared.
A photograph.
It showed an old cream-colored envelope with a blue ribbon.
Across its front was handwritten:
FOR GREGORY, WHEN HE IS READY TO KNOW THE TRUTH.
May you like
And beneath the photograph, Britney had written:
Your mother kept this from you for twenty-three years. Simone isn't the only one hiding things.
