Chapter 5 - The Dinner Invitation
Diane announced the family dinner through a formal email.
The gathering would celebrate Vale Mercer’s acquisition of a smaller investment firm. Attendance, she wrote, was expected from all family members with a financial interest in the company.
Annabelle’s name appeared at the bottom.
“She wants to humiliate you publicly,” Eleanor said.
“Then she still thinks I’m afraid of witnesses.”
Samuel advised against attending until they had frozen the disputed accounts. But Annabelle recognized an opportunity. Diane loved controlling rooms. She spoke freely when surrounded by people too intimidated to challenge her.
Annabelle accepted.
Two days before the dinner, Martin contacted Samuel from an unregistered number. He had gathered internal statements, transfer approvals, and voice messages from Diane. In exchange, he wanted legal protection.
Samuel arranged for him to meet federal investigators.
Martin never arrived.
His car was found at the airport. Security footage showed him boarding a flight to Canada.
Diane called Annabelle the same evening.
“You should wear black on Friday,” she said. “It suits people who have lost everything.”
Annabelle’s stomach tightened, but her voice stayed steady.
“I’ll be there.”
Eleanor prepared quietly. Samuel completed an emergency petition to freeze assets. A judge agreed to review it Friday afternoon, but the order would not become active until the bank received formal notice.
That left a dangerous window.
On the morning of the dinner, Samuel discovered a scheduled transfer of nine hundred thousand dollars from a family holding account into an offshore fund.
The transfer was set for 8:00 p.m.
Dinner began at 7:30.
“Diane is moving the last liquid assets,” Samuel said. “She thinks Martin took the only evidence.”
“Can the bank stop it?”
“Not without the signed order.”
Annabelle looked at the restaurant invitation.
May you like
Then at the bruises fading across her hand.
“We are not going there to defend me,” she said. “We are going there to keep her talking until the order arrives.”
