Chapter 5 - Victoria's Leverage
Nathan called thirteen times before sunrise.
I answered once.
Rebecca sat across from me.
The call was recorded with Nathan's knowledge after Rebecca told him she was present.
His voice sounded exhausted.
“Claire, please come home.”
“No.”
“We can fix this.”
“What does Victoria have on you?”
Silence.
“Nathan.”
“You don't understand my mother.”
“I understand enough.”
“She controls people.”
“She doesn't control you unless you let her.”
“Claire.”
“What does she have?”
He exhaled.
“Financial records.”
Rebecca's eyes narrowed.
“What records?”
Nathan continued.
“Years ago, when your father brought me into Rhodes Development, there were transactions.”
My stomach tightened.
“What transactions?”
“I moved money.”
“How much?”
“It wasn't stealing.”
“That isn't an amount.”
“Claire, please.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred and eighty thousand.”
Rebecca wrote something down.
I laughed once.
“You stole almost three hundred thousand dollars from my father's company?”
“I paid it back.”
“When?”
“Eventually.”
“Did my father know?”
Another silence.
My chest became cold.
“He found out,” Nathan admitted.
“When?”
“Three months before he died.”
I closed my eyes.
My father had died from a heart attack at sixty-seven.
For years, I had wondered why his final conversations with Nathan had seemed unusually tense.
“What did he do?”
“He made me sign a repayment agreement.”
“And Victoria got a copy.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I told her.”
Of course he did.
Nathan had always confused dependence on his mother with loyalty.
“So she used it to control you.”
“She said if I ever cut her off financially, she would make sure you knew.”
“I know now.”
“I was terrified of losing you.”
“You should have been terrified of becoming someone worth leaving.”
He went silent.
I continued.
“What does this have to do with Ethan?”
“After the accident, Mom said if Brooke was blamed, Olivia could be taken away.”
“That is not how child custody works.”
“I know that now.”
“So you deleted evidence of what happened to our son to protect your sister?”
“I panicked.”
“You chose.”
“Claire.”
“You chose Brooke.”
“No.”
“You chose Victoria.”
“No.”
“You chose yourself.”
He broke then.
“I was ashamed.”
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Then Rebecca handed me another sheet.
It showed banking activity from Caldwell-Rhodes Holdings.
Recent banking activity.
Not six years old.
Not repaid.
Current.
I stared at a series of transfers.
$75,000.
$40,000.
$125,000.
All sent to an LLC I did not recognize.
Hawthorne Lifestyle Management.
Rebecca whispered, “Ask him.”
I did.
Nathan stopped breathing.
“Where did those transfers go?”
“What transfers?”
“Hawthorne Lifestyle Management.”
The call went dead.
Rebecca and I looked at each other.
Then she opened the state corporate database.
Hawthorne Lifestyle Management had been formed fourteen months earlier.
Its registered manager was Brooke Caldwell.
My husband had not only betrayed Ethan.
He had been quietly moving money from our company to his sister.
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And the total was not three hundred thousand dollars.
It was already over $1.4 million.
