Chapter 2 - THE ENVELOPE MY HUSBAND BEGGED ME NOT TO OPEN
“Please tell me you haven't opened the financial records.”
My husband stood in the boardroom doorway, his face drained of color.
I looked at Jason Reed, the man I'd shared a bed with for fourteen years, and wondered how someone could become a stranger without ever leaving home.
“Which records, Jason?” I asked. “The missing $9.76 million? Or the $12,800 earrings your secretary is wearing?”
Mia Bennett instinctively covered her ears.
Twenty executives watched her.
Jason closed the door behind him.
“Natalie, this isn't the place.”
“Actually,” I replied, “this is exactly the place.”
I slid the envelope toward Daniel Foster, our chief legal officer.
“Daniel, please open it.”
Jason stepped forward.
“I wouldn't do that.”
Daniel stopped.
His eyes moved between us.
“Jason, is there a legal reason these records shouldn't be reviewed?”
My husband swallowed.
“Those transactions involve confidential financing arrangements.”
“Then you'll have no trouble explaining them,” I said.
Mia looked increasingly uncomfortable.
“Darling, why are you letting her talk to you like this?”
Jason turned sharply.
“Mia, please be quiet.”
Her expression changed.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
Five minutes earlier, she'd announced that she was going to marry my husband.
Now he wouldn't even look at her.
I turned toward the executives.
“For anyone who doesn't know me, I'm Natalie Reed. I provided fifteen million dollars in founding capital for Reed Harbor Hospitality. I own fifty-one percent of the company's voting shares.”
Mia laughed nervously.
“That's ridiculous.”
Daniel stood.
“It's accurate.”
The room became completely silent.
I continued.
“Jason manages daily operations. That doesn't give him unrestricted authority to spend company money. It certainly doesn't give his assistant the authority to fire me.”
Mia lowered herself into a chair.
Jason rubbed his forehead.
“Natalie, you're making this personal.”
“You made it personal when you bought her diamonds with company money.”
His jaw tightened.
“That expense was incorrectly categorized.”
“Then show me the correction.”
He said nothing.
Daniel opened the envelope.
Inside were copies of payment summaries, vendor invoices, bank transfers, and several photographs.
I pointed to the first page.
“For three years, payments have been going to a company called Sable Coast Consulting. The invoices describe engineering work, construction management, and infrastructure improvements at our Harborlight Resort project in Florida.”
Jason nodded.
“That's correct.”
“Then why are there no corresponding construction inspection reports?”
“We have contractors handling that.”
“And why have the same three progress photographs appeared in reports dated eight months apart?”
Jason looked toward Elaine Price, our chief financial officer.
Elaine had worked with us for nearly a decade.
She stared at her hands.
“Elaine?” I asked.
She cleared her throat.
“I signed off on the payment summaries. Jason's office provided the project certifications.”
“Did you verify them?”
A terrible silence followed.
“No,” she admitted.
Jason slammed his palm against the table.
“Enough! We had financial problems you knew nothing about, Natalie. Problems I spent years keeping from destroying this company.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you would have stopped me!”
Those words hung in the air.
I reached into my jacket pocket and touched my father's old silver pocket watch.
He'd given it to me before I invested my inheritance in the company.
Engraved on the back were four words.
Always keep your word.
I'd carried it for years.
Now I understood why.
“Jason,” I said quietly, “did you move company money without authorization?”
He looked away.
“Natalie, if you force this into the open, people will lose their jobs.”
“People may already be losing their jobs because of what you've done.”
Daniel turned another page.
Suddenly, his expression changed.
“Jason, what's this?”
My husband didn't answer.
Daniel held up a financing summary.
“There's a twenty-two-million-dollar construction loan associated with the Florida development.”
“I know,” Jason said.
“The borrower isn't Reed Harbor Hospitality.”
“No.”
Daniel read further.
“But our company appears to be guaranteeing the debt.”
My stomach tightened.
I had personally reviewed our major financing arrangements.
I knew nothing about this guarantee.
“Who approved it?” I asked.
Jason looked directly at me.
Then he said something far worse than admitting the affair.
“Natalie, if that loan goes into default, the bank can make a claim against the assets you spent fifteen million dollars building.”
Daniel checked the payment schedule.
His face hardened.
“The lender can demand repayment in ten business days.”
I stared at my husband.
And suddenly, the missing money wasn't the most frightening part.
May you like
Because Jason had apparently put the entire company at risk.
Without telling me.
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