CHAPTER 6 — THE MONEY HE STOLE
CHAPTER 6 — THE MONEY HE STOLE
The message arrived at 12:17 a.m.
YOU WON THE HOUSE.
I stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
NOW TRY TO SAVE THE EMPIRE.
I read it twice.
A third message followed.
LOOK AT THE ACCOUNT ENDING IN 7719.
My heart began to pound.
I looked at David.
He was still in the study, reviewing the documents we'd frozen.
“David.”
He looked up.
“What?”
I showed him the message.
He frowned.
“Do you have an account ending in 7719?”
“No.”
“Then someone wants us to find it.”
I nodded.
“Find it.”
He opened his laptop.
“I'll need access to the company's banking records.”
“You have it?”
“Not all of them.”
“Then get it.”
He hesitated.
“Clara, it's after midnight.”
“I know.”
“This can wait until morning.”
“No.”
I looked at the screen.
“Whoever sent that message knew about the account.”
David studied my face.
“You think Marcus stole from you.”
“I know he did.”
“No. I mean how much?”
I didn't answer.
Because I was afraid to find out.
At 12:41 a.m., David found the first transfer.
$250,000.
Then another.
$480,000.
Then $1.2 million.
Then $3.7 million.
I stared at the screen.
“How long?”
David sorted the transactions by date.
“Six years.”
My stomach dropped.
“Six years?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
He didn't answer.
“David.”
He looked at me.
“Approximately $18.6 million.”
The room went silent.
I sat down.
Eighteen million dollars.
Gone.
Not from one account.
From multiple accounts.
Small transfers at first.
Then larger ones.
Carefully spaced.
Carefully disguised.
Marcus hadn't suddenly decided to betray me.
He had been stealing from me for years.
A little at a time.
Quietly.
Patiently.
I whispered:
“He stole eighteen million dollars.”
David nodded.
“That's what we can see.”
I looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“There may be more.”
I couldn't sleep.
At 2:00 a.m., I sat alone in the kitchen.
The anniversary cake was still on the counter.
Untouched.
The champagne remained unopened.
I picked up the knife.
Cut one slice.
Then stared at it.
Ten years.
I had spent ten years believing Marcus and I were building something together.
Apparently, he had been building something behind my back.
I took one bite.
It tasted like nothing.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Hello?”
A woman's voice whispered:
“Don't trust David.”
I froze.
“Who is this?”
“Ask him about the account.”
“What account?”
“The one ending in 7719.”
My heart stopped.
“How do you know?”
“Because I helped create it.”
“Who are you?”
The woman hung up.
I stared at the phone.
Then slowly looked toward the study.
David was still there.
Working.
I walked toward him.
“David.”
He looked up.
“Yes?”
“Have you ever heard of account 7719?”
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“What?”
“Account ending in 7719.”
He closed the laptop.
“Why?”
“Someone just called me.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“What did they say?”
“They said not to trust you.”
David stood.
“Clara, listen to me.”
“What is 7719?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
“David.”
“I need to explain.”
“No.”
I stepped back.
“Not another explanation.”
“It's complicated.”
“Then simplify it.”
He sighed.
“The account belongs to an offshore holding company.”
“Whose?”
He looked at me.
“Yours.”
I stared.
“My name is on it?”
“Yes.”
“Did I open it?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Your father.”
I froze.
“Why?”
“To protect your inheritance.”
“Then why did someone say they helped create it?”
David looked away.
“Because they did.”
He opened the laptop again.
A file appeared.
“Your father created a network of holding companies.”
“How many?”
“Thirty-seven that I know of.”
I stared.
“Thirty-seven?”
“Yes.”
“And I own them?”
“Technically, you control them.”
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because you weren't supposed to.”
“Who knew?”
“Your father.”
“Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“Eleanor?”
“Yes.”
“Marcus?”
David paused.
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
Everyone knew.
Except me.
Again.
I opened them.
“How much money is in 7719?”
David entered a password.
The screen loaded.
He went silent.
I leaned closer.
“What?”
He turned the laptop toward me.
$412,893,441.27
I stopped breathing.
Four hundred twelve million dollars.
I stared at the number.
“That can't be real.”
“It is.”
“Where did it come from?”
“Your father.”
“When?”
“Mostly before you were born.”
I sat down.
All my life, I had believed my grandmother's inheritance was the reason I could open my first bakery.
Apparently, that inheritance had only been the smallest piece of a much larger fortune.
I whispered:
“My father was hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from me.”
“No.”
David looked at me.
“He was hiding it for you.”
At sunrise, I called the bank.
They confirmed the account.
They confirmed my ownership.
And they confirmed something else.
There had been an attempted withdrawal the previous evening.
$75 million.
My blood froze.
“When?”
“8:32 p.m.”
The same time Eleanor arrived.
I looked at David.
“Can they tell who initiated it?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
The banker hesitated.
“Mr. Marcus Vance.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
He hadn't given up.
He had simply realized the house was lost.
So he had gone after the money.
I walked into the study.
Marcus was sitting in the chair.
He looked exhausted.
“Good morning.”
I said nothing.
He looked up.
“Clara?”
“Did you try to withdraw seventy-five million dollars?”
His face changed.
“I can explain.”
I laughed.
“No.”
He stood.
“I wasn't stealing.”
“You requested seventy-five million dollars from an account you aren't authorized to access.”
“It was protecting the company.”
“Your company?”
“Our company.”
I stared at him.
“You still don't understand.”
“I was trying to save us.”
“From what?”
“Adrian.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He was going to take everything.”
“So you stole it first?”
“I needed leverage.”
“You stole my money.”
“I borrowed it.”
I stepped closer.
“Without permission.”
“Yes.”
“That is stealing.”
He looked away.
“I was going to put it back.”
“When?”
“After the deal closed.”
“What deal?”
He didn't answer.
“Marcus.”
He sat down.
“There was an acquisition.”
“Of what?”
“A company controlled by Adrian.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because if I controlled it, he couldn't control us.”
I shook my head.
“You were working for him.”
“I was trying to escape him.”
“You could have told me.”
“I couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because you would have left me.”
I stared at him.
“Yes.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“That was the problem.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“The problem was that you knew I would leave if I knew the truth.”
He looked at me.
“And you still chose to lie.”
David entered the room.
“Clara.”
I turned.
He held a folder.
“We found something.”
He placed it on the desk.
“What?”
“Transfers from account 7719.”
I opened the folder.
There were dozens.
But one stood out.
A payment of $4 million.
Recipient:
Bennett Strategic Consulting.
I looked at David.
“Bennett.”
“Chloe's last name.”
My heart sank.
I flipped the page.
Another payment.
$2.5 million.
Another.
$900,000.
All to companies connected to Chloe.
I turned toward Marcus.
“You paid her.”
He shook his head.
“Not like that.”
“Then like what?”
“She needed money.”
“For what?”
“She was helping me.”
“Helping you steal from me?”
“No.”
I threw the papers onto the table.
“You paid my employee millions of dollars.”
Marcus looked at them.
Then looked at me.
“I didn't know how much.”
I laughed.
“You didn't know?”
“She demanded it.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew about the trust.”
I stopped.
“Tell me.”
“She discovered what Adrian wanted.”
“And?”
“She threatened to expose me.”
“So you paid her.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Marcus looked away.
“About eight million.”
I stared.
Eight million dollars.
For silence.
I whispered:
“Where did you get it?”
He didn't answer.
I already knew.
“My money.”
Then Chloe appeared in the doorway.
Everyone turned.
She looked exhausted.
She had clearly been crying.
“Clara.”
I stared at her.
“You're alive.”
She nodded.
“I came to tell you the truth.”
Marcus stood.
“You shouldn't be here.”
Chloe ignored him.
“I know where the rest of the money is.”
I stepped closer.
“What money?”
“The money Marcus stole.”
Marcus's face hardened.
“Chloe.”
She looked at him.
“You lied to me too.”
“I never—”
“You told me the money was yours.”
Marcus said nothing.
She turned to me.
“There are other accounts.”
“How many?”
“Seven.”
My stomach tightened.
“How much?”
She swallowed.
“I don't know.”
“Guess.”
“More than one hundred million.”
The room went silent.
David looked at me.
“We need to find them.”
Chloe nodded.
“I can.”
“How?”
“I have the passwords.”
Marcus lunged toward her.
I stepped between them.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
Chloe looked at him with fear.
“He tried to kill me last night.”
My blood ran cold.
“What?”
“He found out I copied the files.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I never touched you.”
“You sent someone after me.”
“I didn't.”
“You did.”
“Enough!”
I raised my voice.
Both of them stopped.
I looked at Chloe.
“Give me the passwords.”
She nodded.
Then whispered:
“There is one account you need to see first.”
“Which one?”
She looked at Marcus.
“The one he used to buy the house.”
I frowned.
“The house?”
“Yes.”
I turned toward Marcus.
“What does that mean?”
He looked away.
Chloe answered.
“Marcus didn't buy this house with your money.”
“Then with whose?”
“His own.”
I stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
She handed me a file.
Inside was an old property agreement.
The original purchase price.
The funding source.
And one name.
Adrian Vale.
I looked at Marcus.
He whispered:
“I told you.”
“Told me what?”
“That I was trying to escape him.”
I looked at the agreement again.
Adrian had funded the purchase of our dream home.
Which meant the house had never simply been a gift from me to Marcus.
It had been part of something much larger.
I turned to David.
“Can you trace the original funds?”
“Yes.”
“Do it.”
He opened his laptop.
Five minutes later, his face went pale.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“The money came from account 7719.”
My heart stopped.
“The house was purchased with my father's money.”
David nodded.
“And there's something else.”
“What?”
He turned the screen toward me.
The original deed contained a hidden clause.
A clause Marcus had never told me about.
I read it.
Then read it again.
The house was not merely jointly owned.
It was held in trust.
For one beneficiary.
Clara Vance.
I looked up.
“The house was never his.”
David nodded.
“No.”
I stared at Marcus.
He looked defeated.
“Then why did you let me believe it was ours?”
He whispered:
“Because I wanted to believe it too.”
For one second, I saw the man from our first apartment.
The man who had sanded floors with me.
The man who had promised we'd build an empire together.
Then I remembered the stolen money.
The secret accounts.
The hotel.
Chloe.
The lies.
I turned away.
“Find every account.”
David nodded.
“And freeze everything connected to Marcus.”
“Already doing it.”
I looked at Chloe.
“You're going to tell me everything.”
She nodded.
“Everything.”
“And if you lie?”
“I won't.”
I walked toward the window.
The sun was rising over the estate.
For the first time, the house didn't feel like a prison.
It felt like territory I had finally reclaimed.
Then my phone buzzed.
One new message.
YOU FOUND 7719.
I stared.
Another message appeared.
GOOD.
Then:
NOW FIND ACCOUNT 0001.
I felt a chill.
David looked over my shoulder.
“What's account 0001?”
I slowly shook my head.
“I don't know.”
Chloe whispered:
“I do.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked terrified.
“Account 0001 isn't a bank account.”
“What is it?”
She swallowed.
“It's a list.”
“What kind of list?”
She looked directly at me.
“The names of everyone who was paid to destroy your family.”
The room went silent.
Then she added:
“And Marcus isn't at the top.”
May you like
She looked toward the door.
“He's number twelve.”
