Chapter 13 - Richard’s explanation
My father spoke through lawyers for weeks.
Then requested a proffer meeting with prosecutors.
His statements eventually became discoverable in part through the criminal process.
Richard’s explanation was exactly what I expected.
And worse because of that.
He believed Claire was about to destroy Michael.
The questionable North Crest invoices carried Michael’s credentials.
Richard thought independent board counsel would immediately suspect the CFO.
He had already begun correcting records privately.
Meaning:
Replacing support.
Reclassifying invoices.
Creating new approval memoranda.
More concealment.
Claire discovered some of those edits.
She accused him of falsification.
Correctly.
Richard said:
“Give me seventy-two hours.”
She refused.
He believed:
If Claire went public before he cleaned the record, Michael could face investigation.
Possible.
But Michael himself wanted outside counsel.
Richard did not know that.
Because he never asked Michael.
Of course.
He assumed.
Then:
Why the bunker?
Richard told prosecutors:
“I wanted Claire somewhere private while she calmed down.”
For eighty-six days?
His attorney stopped him.
Later he admitted the real shift.
After the first night, Claire said she would report the confinement too.
Now releasing her meant exposing:
Invoices.
Falsified approvals.
And unlawful detention.
Every added crime made the previous crime harder to admit.
Richard told himself:
One more day.
Get the documents.
Get a signed statement.
Arrange a private treatment facility where Claire could:
“recover from stress.”
That phrase enraged me.
He wanted to transform coercion into a medical narrative.
Claire was not psychotic.
Not suicidal.
Not delusional.
She was angry.
Accurate.
And trapped.
My father needed her reality to become pathology because then he could still be protector.
May you like
That was how he lived with himself.
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