Chapter 6: What They Did With Her Name
Victor stared at the screen.
“Cancel it.”
The technician kept his hands above the keyboard.
“The funds are moving through three accounts.
I need authorization from the majority owner.”
Victor looked at me.
“His authority is suspended.”
“The board never voted,” Miriam said.
“Your announcement had no legal force.”
I placed my thumb on the technician’s security reader.
“Freeze every account connected to Eleanor House.”
The screen flashed green.
Chad shoved a chair aside.
“You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“I stopped you from moving the last of the foundation’s money.”
“You froze payroll accounts too.”
Hannah stepped forward.
“No, he didn’t.
Eleanor House has never paid a single employee.”
Victor pointed toward the donors.
“These people are watching their investments collapse because he wants revenge on a former fiancée.”
An elderly woman in a silver shawl rose from the front table.
Earlier that evening, I had heard her laugh when Chad joked that the service entrance might be easier for my chair.
She walked toward us with her cane striking the floor.
“My name is Margaret Wainwright,” she said.
“My family donated eight hundred thousand dollars to the Eleanor Grant.”
Victor offered his smoothest smile.
“Mrs.
Wainwright, I assure you—”
“Don’t assure me.
Show me.”
He blinked.
“Show you what?”
“Where my money went.”
Victor looked toward Chad.
Chad looked away.
Mrs.
Wainwright stopped beside my chair.
“I also owe this gentleman an apology.”
I met her eyes.
She tightened both hands over her cane.
“I laughed because everyone else did.
It was cowardly, and I am ashamed.”
“You’re speaking now,” I said.
“Too late to erase it.
Not too late to help.”
She removed a flash drive from her purse and handed it to Miriam.
“Victor sent quarterly reports to major donors.
My accountant found duplicate invoices and advised me to keep copies.”
Hannah inserted the drive into the laptop.
“These invoices match the transfers, but the hotel locations are false.”
“Look at the vendor approvals,” Mrs.
Wainwright said.
Miriam read the names.
“Victor Lang, Chad Mercer—and Brooke Ellis.”
Brooke sank into a chair.
I moved across from her.
“How many did you sign?”
“Six.”
“You told me there were three.”
“I was afraid.”
“You were afraid of losing Chad.
You were not afraid of taking from people who needed those rooms.”
She pressed a hand over her mouth.
“Say it,” I told her.
“Not to me.
To Elena.”
Brooke looked up at the attendant.
“I watched Chad mock him.
I knew it was cruel, and I laughed because I wanted Chad’s friends to accept me.”
Elena did not soften.
“Then you weren’t standing beside a cruel man.
You were helping him.”
Brooke wiped her face.
“You’re right.”
Chad slammed his palm onto the table.
“Enough.
She enjoyed every cent.
Don’t let her turn herself into a victim.”
Brooke stood.
“I’m not a victim.”
“Then tell them about the first invoice.”
Her face emptied.
I turned toward her.
“What first invoice?”
Brooke’s voice shook.
“Before Chad approached me, I moved forty thousand dollars.”
“Why?”
“To pay debts.
I told myself I would replace it after selling my apartment.”
The words landed harder than Chad’s threats.
“You betrayed me before he promised you anything,” I said.
“Yes.”
“And after my accident?”
She nodded.
“That was when I started.”
I could not grip the wheels.
Elena placed one hand on the chair, steadying it without moving me.
Brooke knelt several feet away.
“I told myself you had more money than you could ever use.”
“It was not my money.
It belonged to people who trusted the foundation.”
“I know.”
“No.
You know now because you were caught.”
Chad took a step toward the side exit.
Mrs.
Wainwright blocked his path with her cane.
“You can wait with the rest of us.”
Sirens sounded outside the hotel.
Miriam checked her phone.
“Financial investigators are here.”
Chad smiled at Brooke, but there was nothing warm in it.
May you like
“Then you’d better decide,” he said.
“Because I still have the one recording that can put all of this on you.”
