Chapter 13 - Carter Biotech Finds the Missing Money
The forensic audit took five months.
Ryan and Vanessa had routed more than $3.2 million through false vendors.
Westbridge was only one.
There were four others.
Some money was recovered.
Some was gone.
Ryan accepted a plea agreement covering fraud, identity-related offenses, and financial crimes.
Vanessa fought the charges longer.
Then the emails buried her.
The staircase incident remained unresolved.
Investigators could prove Vanessa had entered the home.
They could not prove she caused Emily’s fall.
Emily learned to live with that uncertainty.
Not every frightening question ended with a courtroom answer.
The custody case was easier.
Ryan received no unsupervised access while the criminal case was active.
Later, family court established tightly supervised contact subject to professional review.
Emily did not celebrate.
Sophie would one day ask about her father.
Emily wanted to answer honestly.
Not vindictively.
Richard stepped down as Carter Biotech CEO.
He surprised everyone by naming an outside executive instead of Emily.
Emily asked why.
“You just had a baby.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“That’s your reason?”
“No.”
Richard smiled.
“My reason is that you should decide whether you even want the job.”
Emily stared at him.
For most of her life, Richard had assumed she would inherit his plans.
May you like
Now he was offering a choice.
She liked him better for it.
