Chapter 9 - The Real Scheme
Aaron met us in a motel parking lot outside Hartford.
He refused an office.
Refused police.
Refused cameras.
He looked like a man who had spent three years expecting somebody to knock on his door.
“You brought a lawyer.”
“Yes.”
“I said alone.”
“I stopped following dishonest men’s instructions this week.”
Eleanor almost smiled.
Aaron did not.
He looked at me.
“Brooke told me you’d never come back.”
“That was her mistake.”
He handed me an envelope.
Inside were account maps.
Transfers.
Passwords.
Offshore entities.
My eyes moved across familiar company names.
Then unfamiliar ones.
North Coast Strategy.
Branton Advisory.
Vantage Family Services.
Millions moved through them.
“How much?”
Aaron rubbed his face.
“Almost nine million over four years.”
My stomach dropped.
We knew about 1.7.
Not nine.
“Who?”
“Brooke.”
“Victoria.”
“And Dominic?”
Aaron hesitated.
“That’s complicated.”
“Make it simple.”
“Dominic approved transfers.”
“Did he know where the money went?”
“Sometimes.”
That answer hurt differently.
I could have accepted stupidity more easily than participation.
Aaron continued.
“Brooke started seeing Dominic because she needed access.”
“To what?”
“The company authentication system.”
“Dominic’s login couldn’t authorize international movements.”
“Yours could.”
I stared at him.
“I was in Singapore.”
“Exactly.”
Brooke used Dominic to reach old credential backups.
But she still lacked my rotating security token.
That was why some transfers failed.
The successful ones were disguised as vendor payments Dominic approved.
“What did Victoria get?”
“Money.”
“Control.”
“And revenge.”
“Against whom?”
Aaron looked at me.
“You.”
I laughed once.
Of course.
Victoria never forgave me for becoming more important to Sterling Meridian than her son.
She called me ambitious.
Cold.
Controlling.
Yet every time Dominic made a mess, she called me to fix it.
Aaron continued.
“Brooke told Victoria that if you stayed overseas long enough, Dominic could force you out.”
“And Leo?”
Aaron looked away.
That was when I knew he had information.
“What about my son?”
“I heard them talking once.”
“Who?”
“Brooke and Victoria.”
“What did they say?”
Aaron swallowed.
“They said Leo was the reason you would always come back.”
“So?”
“So they wanted him to become the reason you stayed away.”
My entire body went cold.
Before I could ask what that meant, a black SUV entered the parking lot.
Aaron panicked.
“They found me.”
Two men stepped out.
Eleanor grabbed my arm.
“Car.”
We moved.
The men did not chase us.
One walked straight toward Aaron.
Then handed him legal papers.
Aaron stared.
Not violence.
A subpoena.
May you like
From Dominic.
He had decided to testify against Brooke and his own mother.
