Chapter 14 - The Paper Trail Reveals High Level Corruption
Inside my glass-walled corner office on the fourth floor of the Annex, I sat reviewing the initial audit findings.
Marcus Vance set a thick stack of printed financial ledgers onto my mahogany desk, pointing to a highlighted section.
“It’s worse than we thought, Mara,” Marcus reported, his tone serious and professional.
“Ethan wasn't just turning a blind eye to supply discrepancies... he was actively signing off on fraudulent invoices.”
“Over the past two years, nearly two point four million dollars in tactical equipment vanished from the Belvoir depot.”
I scanned the rows of numbers, my eyes stopping on the shell company names listed as the secondary suppliers.
Every single one of those shell companies was registered to a holding firm in Delaware.
And the primary shareholder of that holding firm was none other than Evelyn Hawthorne.
I leaned back in my executive leather chair, taking a deep, slow breath as the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
Evelyn hadn't hated me just because I was a quiet, modest woman who didn't fit her idea of a high-society wife.
She had hated me because she was using her son’s military authority to siphon millions of dollars out of base logistics.
She had been terrified that my presence at family dinners would eventually expose her illegal financial pipeline.
She had pushed Ethan toward Audrey Caldwell because Audrey’s father was a general who could protect the operation if things went wrong.
Her attempt to humiliate me at the ball wasn't just petty cruelty—it was a desperate attempt to break my influence over Ethan before the trap sprung.
“Does General Caldwell know about his daughter’s potential connection?” I asked Marcus smoothly.
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“We’re reviewing Audrey Caldwell’s personal bank records right now,” Marcus replied.
“If she took a single dollar from those Delaware accounts, her father’s career is over too.”
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