Chapter 7 - Secrets in the Ledger
For the next three days, Maggie buried herself in the basement archive room, sorting through dusty cardboard boxes filled with tax returns, payroll vouchers, and corporate bank statements. The sheer volume of paper was overwhelming, but her organized, methodical mind—honed by years of managing tight budgets back in Kentucky—allowed her to spot anomalies that corporate auditors had somehow missed.
By late Thursday night, under the illumination of a single brass desk lamp, she found it. A series of duplicate expense vouchers signed off under Diane Mercer’s secondary administrative signature, transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to an offshore shell corporation named Meridian Trust. Cross-referencing the dates, Maggie realized the largest transfers always occurred precisely when Ethan was hospitalized or traveling abroad.
She carried the physical receipts upstairs to Ethan’s study, her heart pounding against her ribs. Ethan was working late, his wheelchair positioned near the window. When she placed the stack of papers before him and pointed out the recurring corporate drain, the color drained entirely from his face. "Meridian Trust..." Ethan whispered, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the armrests. "That isn't just a shell company. That account is managed directly by Julian Vance’s private banking firm in Zurich."
