Beneath it, he wrote: “Goodbye, Audrey. When you wake up, you’ll realize you have nothing left.”
I stared at the screen, took a slow breath, and typed four words: “The accounts are frozen.”
The Tables Turn
Seven seconds later, my phone rang. Daniel was already shouting. “What did you do?!”
“Good morning, Daniel,” I replied calmly while pouring a fresh cup of coffee.
“The transfers were rejected! My cards aren’t working! What did you do?”
“Are you referring to the corporate expense cards you used for luxury hotels, flights, and personal gifts?”
Silence followed before he tried backtracking. “Audrey, sweetheart, you’re confused.”
“I found twelve suspicious authorizations, three attempted transfers totaling over eleven million dollars, $1.2 million in unauthorized personal expenses, and another $3.6 million paid to Chloe’s firm.”
When he tried to argue that I didn’t understand how the company worked, I smiled. Sterling Global belonged to an irrevocable family trust left entirely to me by my mother. I had appointed Daniel Chief Operating Officer, but not a single voting share had ever been transferred to him. He had confused my lack of interest in office politics with a lack of authority, laughing months ago when he signed an executive clause allowing his operational powers to be instantly suspended upon the discovery of financial fraud.
