Chapter 13 - The New Money
The recent transaction changed everything.
For twenty years, Grant Holloway had appeared legitimate.
Investment advisory firm.
Real-estate partnerships.
Charitable foundation.
No criminal convictions.
But Charles’s ledger included an account code that Mara had traced.
The same code appeared in a three-month-old transfer from a Mercer Design Group reserve account.
Ethan stared at it.
“That’s impossible.”
Miriam asked, “Who can authorize reserve transfers?”
“Me. Chief financial officer. Board treasurer.”
“Celeste?”
“No.”
“Grant?”
“Absolutely not.”
Celeste said quietly, “Unless he has someone inside.”
Ethan called CFO Thomas Baird.
Thomas denied authorizing any unusual transfer.
Then he checked.
Thirty-seven minutes later, he called back.
His voice shook.
A payment had been routed through a vendor acquisition account.
Amount: $480,000.
The paperwork carried Ethan’s digital approval.
Ethan had never approved it.
Someone had been impersonating him financially, not merely with his estate lawyer.
Miriam contacted law enforcement.
What had begun as domestic suspicion now involved possible wire fraud and corporate theft.
Leah expected Celeste to look frightened.
Instead, she looked furious.
“He promised he stopped.”
Evelyn stared.
“You knew Grant still had access to financial systems?”
“Not Mercer’s.”
“What did you think he was doing?”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
“Managing old accounts.”
“Stolen money.”
“Money nobody was looking for.”
Evelyn turned away.
Leah understood the pain in that movement.
Celeste could be victim and participant simultaneously.
One truth did not erase the other.
On the drive home, Ethan asked Celeste again what Grant’s plan had been for him.
Celeste remained silent for twenty minutes.
Then she spoke.
“He wanted the power of attorney signed Monday.”
“We know.”
“After that, Kessler was supposed to document cognitive impairment.”
Leah stared.
“How?”
Celeste glanced toward Miriam.
“I don’t know the medical details.”
Miriam said, “Be precise about what you actually know.”
“Grant said Kessler could make Ethan look unreliable.”
“With false records?”
“I assumed.”
“You assumed?”
“I didn’t ask.”
Ethan gripped the steering wheel.
“And then?”
Celeste looked at him.
“Grant wanted you removed temporarily from company decision-making.”
“By using the power of attorney?”
“Yes.”
“And the will?”
“Executed first.”
Ethan’s knuckles whitened.
“Then you control my estate and Grant controls company decisions through you.”
Celeste whispered, “That was the structure.”
“What did ‘make sure he never changes his mind’ mean?”
Leah watched Celeste in the mirror.
Celeste’s eyes filled.
“He said once you were documented as impaired, every attempt you made to undo the documents could be characterized as evidence of instability.”
Miriam exhaled slowly.
Not murder.
Something colder.
Erasing Ethan’s legal credibility while he remained alive.
Ethan looked almost relieved and horrified at once.
“You were going to let them declare me incompetent.”
Celeste answered, “I was going to stop before Monday.”
Leah snapped.
“When?”
Celeste looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
“After he signed?”
“No.”
“After you got the company?”
“I said I don’t know!”
Evelyn interrupted.
“That is the problem. You kept telling yourself you would stop later.”
Celeste turned toward the window.
Nobody spoke again.
At the Mercer house, police were waiting.
So was Julia Marks, Celeste’s attorney.
Julia took Celeste aside.
They spoke privately.
Then Julia returned alone.
“Celeste is willing to provide investigators with access to her communications with Grant.”
Ethan stared.
“Why now?”
“Because Grant transferred money from your company without telling her.”
Leah laughed.
“So that’s the line?”
Julia’s eyes moved to her.
“It may be the line where your stepmother finally realized he would sacrifice her.”
Celeste entered holding her phone.
“He already has.”
She placed it on the counter.
A message glowed on-screen.
Unknown number.
You always were your father’s daughter. If I fall, you fall first.
Attached was a photograph.
It showed Celeste, twenty-four years old, signing one of Charles’s illegal transfer documents.
Celeste stared at Evelyn.
“He kept everything.”
May you like
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“So did Mara.”
