Chapter 7 - Chloe Sent the Invoices
Chloe contacted Rebecca’s attorney before Daniel did.
She wanted protection.
Not legal immunity.
Protection from being blamed for everything.
Rebecca agreed to one meeting.
Chloe arrived wearing jeans and a sweater.
No designer dress.
No confidence.
She placed a laptop on the table.
“I didn’t know he was taking money illegally.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“You accepted $420,000.”
“For marketing.”
“What marketing?”
Chloe swallowed.
“Events.”
“Brand positioning.”
“Introductions.”
Rebecca almost laughed.
“That sounds like Daniel.”
Chloe looked down.
“He told me the company approved it.”
“Did you ever speak to anyone else at the company?”
“No.”
“Then why did you believe him?”
“Because he was the CEO.”
Rebecca leaned back.
“That answer is probably going to become important to you.”
Chloe nodded.
Then she opened the laptop.
Invoices.
Emails.
Messages.
Daniel instructed Chloe how to describe expenses.
Do not write personal styling.
Write executive image consulting.
Do not write apartment.
Write campaign residence.
Do not write vacation.
Write client retreat.
Rebecca stared at the messages.
Daniel had not simply mixed personal and corporate spending.
He had coached Chloe to disguise it.
“Why are you showing me this?”
Chloe’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because he called me this morning.”
“He said if investigators ask, I should say the consulting invoices were my idea.”
Rebecca said nothing.
“He told me you were the one trying to destroy him.”
Chloe continued.
“Then I realized he says the same thing about every woman once she stops protecting him.”
That sentence landed differently.
Rebecca looked at the young woman who had been standing in her living room laughing less than forty-eight hours earlier.
She still felt anger.
But not the same kind.
Chloe had betrayed another woman.
That mattered.
But she was also discovering the man she thought chose her had mostly chosen access.
Rebecca asked.
“Did Daniel ever tell you he was transferring company money into Mercer Capital?”
Chloe hesitated.
“He said it was for our future.”
Rebecca’s chest tightened.
“Our?”
“He said after the divorce, he would build a new investment company.”
“With me.”
There it was.
The affair had a business plan.
Daniel was not only leaving Rebecca.
May you like
He had been preparing a second empire.
Funded partly by money moved from the first one.
