Chapter 9 - Twelve Years of Missing Money
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Dominic’s accountants began before noon.
Independent accountants.
Not anyone Grant had ever hired.
They reconstructed twelve years of trust transactions.
At first, the numbers looked ordinary.
Management fees.
Consulting fees.
Property expenses.
Investment vehicles.
Then patterns appeared.
The same shell companies.
The same addresses.
Payments split just below internal review thresholds.
Money moved out.
Then reappeared inside North River funds.
The amount grew.
Seven million.
Twelve.
Twenty-three.
By midnight, preliminary exposure exceeded forty million dollars.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Rachel stood beside him.
“It could be more.”
“Can we recover it?”
“Some.”
Not all.
Dominic hated that answer.
Then the forensic accountants found something else.
Grant’s scheme had depended on controlling votes.
For years, he could rely on old trustees and passive beneficiaries.
But Lily changed the structure.
On her first birthday, fifty-one percent consolidated under one beneficiary.
The old fragmented system ended.
Grant could no longer quietly move money without stronger scrutiny.
Unless Lily’s guardian approved the restructuring.
Unless the shares were placed into a new holding company.
Unless Celeste controlled the vote.
Sofia had noticed.
That was why she started asking questions.
Dominic sat back.
“She wasn’t protecting money.”
Rachel nodded.
“She was protecting Lily’s future.”
Then a forensic accountant opened one archived payment.
C.V. Advisory.
Celeste had received far more than $640,000.
Total:
$1.9 million.
Celeste’s attorney requested a private meeting.
Dominic agreed only with Rachel present.
Celeste entered without jewelry.
Without the emerald gown.
She looked smaller.
Not sympathetic.
Just exposed.
Dominic slid the statement toward her.
“One-point-nine million.”
She looked away.
“What did you do for it?”
“Introductions.”
“To who?”
“Investors.”
“Which investors?”
“North River.”
Rachel asked—
“When did Grant first approach you about Lily’s guardianship?”
“Three months ago.”
“Before Sofia died?”
Celeste looked at Dominic.
“No.”
Dominic studied her.
“Did Grant know Sofia was investigating him?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She confronted him.”
“When?”
“About a week before the accident.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Rachel immediately spoke.
“There is no evidence Grant had anything to do with Sofia’s accident.”
Celeste nodded quickly.
“I’m not saying he did.”
Good.
Dominic needed facts.
Not rage.
Celeste continued.
“Sofia told him she was taking the records to an outside lawyer.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she?”
“I think so.”
Dominic stood.
There might be another copy.
Another witness.
Someone beyond Grant’s reach.
Then Celeste said—
“She also changed something in the trust.”
Rachel turned.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why mention it?”
“Because Grant was terrified of it.”
Dominic stared.
“What did Sofia change?”
Celeste shook her head.
“He never told me.”
Then she remembered something.
“He called it the red clause.”
Rachel frowned.
“There is no red clause in the copy we have.”
Celeste looked at her.
“Then you don’t have Sofia’s copy.”
May you like
👉 Sofia had apparently created one final protection before her death—and Grant had spent months making sure Dominic never discovered it.
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