Chapter 18 - The Day the Calloway Empire Started Falling Apart|
The financial investigation continued for another month.
By then, Ross was living in a rented apartment in River North.
Tiffany had left the company.
Delia was no longer permitted to approve vendor payments.
And Constance had stopped calling me directly.
Her attorney handled every communication.
I almost missed her insults.
Almost.
Then Marcus Bell completed the next phase of his forensic review.
The findings were worse than anything we'd expected.
He identified approximately one point six million dollars in payments to Westbridge that required further explanation.
A portion was associated with vendor activity that appeared questionable.
Other amounts had been transferred through intermediary accounts.
One receiving entity was connected to a company controlled by Constance.
I sat in Meredith's conference room staring at the report.
“Did she receive the money personally?”
Marcus shook his head.
“We can establish transfers to an entity associated with her. We still need to determine how the money was used and whether the underlying transactions were legitimate.”
“Did Ross authorize them?”
“Several payments carried his approval.”
“And Delia?”
“Her department processed many of the invoices.”
I leaned back.
For years, Constance had treated me as though I were a financial burden.
Apparently, she had been receiving benefits from a system whose funding and ownership involved my family's investments.
Meredith looked at me.
“We're considering further civil claims and appropriate referrals based on the evidence.”
I nodded.
I wanted accountability.
But I didn't want speculation dressed up as certainty.
The independent board arranged another special meeting.
This time, Ross didn't lead it.
He attended with counsel.
Marcus presented the findings.
The directors reviewed the suspicious transactions and the failure to disclose potential conflicts of interest.
Ross's attorney argued that certain payments represented legitimate business services.
The directors requested supporting records.
Then the board voted to keep Ross on leave, remove Delia from her executive position, and pursue recovery of funds determined to have been improperly transferred.
The company's independent directors also approved stronger financial controls.
For the first time in years, people were making business decisions without waiting for Ross's permission.
After the meeting, he approached me.
“Lydia, I never thought things would get this bad.”
I looked at him.
“Neither did I.”
His eyes filled.
“I worked my whole life for that company.”
“So did I.”
He nodded.
“I know that now.”
I studied him.
“Ross, did you know your mother was receiving money through these arrangements?”
He looked away.
“I knew she had financial interests connected to some outside entities.”
“Did you question them?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He swallowed.
“Because she told me everything was being handled.”
I stared at him.
“You trusted your mother more than your own wife.”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
There was nothing left to say.
Then he reached into his jacket.
He removed a small folded paper.
“I found something in my old office files.”
I frowned.
“What is it?”
He handed it to me.
It was a copy of a letter written before our wedding.
The letter wasn't addressed to Ross.
It was addressed to Constance.
And near the bottom was a sentence that made my hands tremble.
The Pierce investment will provide the necessary leverage once the marriage is formalized.
I looked up.
“Ross, what is this?”
His expression crumpled.
“I don't know everything about it.”
I stared at him.
“Where did you find it?”
“In my father's old business files.”
His father had died years earlier.
I looked back at the letter.
My marriage had been less than a year away when someone wrote it.
May you like
And suddenly, the question that haunted me wasn't whether Ross had married me for money.
It was whether his family had been planning to use mine before he ever proposed.
