Chapter 2 - The Bank Calls Before Goodbye
Jessica stopped three steps from the curb when the woman from the bank said the number.
“Mrs. Carter, I need you to tell me whether you personally authorized a wire transfer for two million eight hundred thousand dollars from the Carter & Bloom operating reserve.”
For a second, the airport noise seemed to collapse into a distant hum.
Emilee still held Jessica’s hand, but the little girl was staring through the revolving doors, searching for her father.
“No,” Jessica said. “I authorized no transfer.”
The banker’s tone changed immediately.
“Then do not approve anything through text or email. We have placed a temporary hold because the signature packet arrived with a new device authorization less than an hour ago.”
Jessica’s throat tightened.
A signature packet.
Daniel had asked her to sign three documents before he left for his “business trip.” He had said they were insurance renewals and a vendor extension.
She had refused because she was late taking Emilee to school.
Daniel had smiled and kissed her forehead.
“No problem. I’ll handle it when I get back.”
Now he was back.
And he had apparently handled something.
Jessica turned toward the terminal just as Daniel appeared inside the glass doors.
He was no longer chasing her.
He was standing twenty yards away, frozen beside his suitcase, watching Anna pull papers from the thick envelope.
Even from that distance, Jessica saw the color leave his face.
“Mom?” Emilee whispered.
Jessica looked down.
Her daughter’s handmade WELCOME HOME DAD sign was gone.
Jessica remembered slamming it onto Daniel’s suitcase.
It was still inside.
Her stomach dropped.
“Stay right next to me.”
She turned and walked back toward the doors.
Daniel reacted instantly.
“Jessica, don’t.”
She kept moving.
Anna held up a page.
“What is Northstar Meridian Holdings?”
Daniel reached for it.
Anna stepped back.
“Don’t touch me.”
Her voice was loud enough to turn heads.
Jessica entered the terminal as the banker remained on the phone.
“Mrs. Carter, are you somewhere safe?”
“I’m at the airport.”
“Do you know anyone associated with Northstar Meridian Holdings?”
Jessica looked at Daniel.
“No.”
Anna looked at the paper again.
“It says the transfer is consideration for the purchase of forty-one percent of Carter & Bloom.”
Jessica stopped cold.
Carter & Bloom was not merely a company.
It was the business Jessica had built after Emilee was born, starting with a folding desk she designed for children recovering from long hospital stays.
Eight years later, the company employed more than two hundred people.
Jessica owned fifty-eight percent.
Daniel owned none.
Not one share.
He had been hired as chief operating officer three years after their marriage, only after Jessica’s board insisted she needed help scaling distribution.
He knew the accounts.
He knew the vendors.
He knew exactly where the money moved.
But he did not own the company.
“How?” Jessica asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
Anna laughed once, without humor.
“That sentence is doing a lot of work today.”
She flipped to another page.
Then she went still.
Jessica saw it.
A signature.
Her signature.
Except Jessica had not made it.
The banker spoke again.
“We also received a resolution stating that you approved an emergency equity transfer at six forty-two this morning.”
Jessica’s heart hammered.
“I was driving to the airport at six forty-two.”
“Do you have anyone on your board who could have submitted supporting documents?”
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Carter, I recommend you contact counsel immediately.”
Jessica looked at Daniel.
He avoided her eyes.
That told her more than denial ever could.
Anna suddenly pulled another item from the suitcase pocket.
A boarding pass.
Daniel moved faster this time.
He snatched for it, but Anna twisted away.
“What are you hiding?”
“Give it to me.”
Anna read the name.
Her expression changed.
Jessica stepped closer.
“What does it say?”
Anna stared at Daniel before slowly turning the boarding pass around.
The destination was Lisbon.
The departure was that afternoon.
But the passenger was not Anna.
It was not Daniel either.
The name printed across the top was partially covered by a baggage sticker, leaving only two visible initials.
N.B.
Jessica knew one person close enough to Daniel, close enough to the company, and powerful enough to help him move nearly three million dollars.
Her best friend of seventeen years.
Her chief financial officer.
Nora Blake.
Jessica’s phone began vibrating again.
May you like
This time it was Nora calling.
And suddenly Jessica was afraid to answer.
