Chapter 8
Rowan’s board advised him to limit the investigation.
Not Mercer Atlantic’s board.
The foundation board.
They already had enough to remove Genevieve from day-to-day authority temporarily.
They could investigate Halcyon.
Audrey.
The fake email.
The house-entry plan.
Everything connected directly to Isolde.
A full five-year forensic audit would expose unrelated family transactions.
Rowan’s late father’s practices.
Genevieve’s charitable spending.
Rowan’s own approvals.
Vendor relationships involving wealthy donors who would not enjoy scrutiny.
Katherine placed two authorizations before him.
“Narrow.”
Rowan looked at the first.
“And the second?”
“Everything.”
Isolde sat beside him.
Margaret Sloan explained what “everything” meant.
Every Mercer Family Foundation payment above $25,000 for five years.
Every related-party vendor.
Every family reimbursement.
Every grant involving Mercer relatives.
Every trustee approval.
Every electronic signature.
Every donor-restricted transfer.
Anything legally reportable would be reported.
Rowan could lose the chairmanship.
The foundation could lose donors.
Old tax mistakes could become penalties.
Good programs might suffer temporarily.
Genevieve’s misconduct might not be the only misconduct.
Rowan looked at Isolde.
“You think I should do it.”
She shook her head.
“I think you should decide without using me as the reason.”
He understood.
If he opened everything only because his wife had been attacked, someone could later say the audit was revenge.
So Rowan asked Margaret a different question.
“If Genevieve had never touched Isolde, would these documents justify a full audit?”
Margaret answered immediately.
“Yes.”
He signed.
Then he resigned temporarily as foundation chairman.
Not suspended.
Not forced out.
He recused himself and gave the independent committee unrestricted authority.
Katherine looked at him.
“You understand you cannot call me next week and say you changed your mind.”
“Yes.”
“If they find something involving you?”
“Follow it.”
“If it involves my father?”
“Follow it.”
“Your company?”
“If legally relevant, follow it.”
That was Part 8’s irreversible decision.
By evening, donors had heard there was a forensic review.
Two paused major gifts.
A newspaper called.
Rowan’s mother released a statement through counsel accusing him of weaponizing foundation governance after assaulting her.
He did not respond publicly.
The first audit finding involving Rowan arrived three days later.
He had approved $96,000 in foundation-sponsored security at a charitable event that also covered security for a private family weekend.
The allocation was sloppy.
About $27,000 should have been personal.
He repaid it with interest.
Another finding involved Isolde.
A foundation employee had reimbursed $8,400 in travel around one of her volunteer events without sufficient documentation.
Isolde repaid it too.
No fraud.
Weak controls.
Still relevant.
Then Margaret found the structure Genevieve had feared.
More than $5.7 million in related-party payments had been approved during Genevieve’s last four years as chair.
At least $3.1 million appeared unsupported or personally beneficial.
And the people approving them were not only Genevieve and Audrey.
Three other family insiders were involved.
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The investigation had become larger than the staircase.
Exactly as Genevieve feared.
