Chapter 4 - Gabriel Bellamy Comes Home)
Gabriel's plane landed at Teterboro forty-seven minutes late.
He hated being late.
He hated it even more tonight.
Rain streaked the windows of the black sedan carrying him toward Manhattan.
His assistant, Helena March, sat opposite him with a tablet balanced on one knee.
"You can still make the final hour of the reception," she said.
Gabriel looked out the window.
"Elise will pretend not to care."
"Naturally."
"Then she will remind me of it every Christmas until I die."
"Also naturally."
Gabriel smiled.
It faded when Helena's tablet chimed.
She read the notification.
Then stopped.
"What?"
Helena looked up.
"We have a problem."
Gabriel's posture changed.
"Elise?"
"Possibly."
She turned the tablet around.
An internal alert had been generated by Aurelius International Capital.
A document associated with Bellamy Family Trust Number Four had been accessed through an external legal portal.
The attempted requesting party was Wycliffe Holdings.
Gabriel stared.
"When?"
"Twenty-six minutes ago."
"Authorized by whom?"
"That is the problem."
Helena touched the screen.
A signature appeared.
Elise Bellamy Wycliffe.
Gabriel looked at it once.
"Forged."
"You are certain?"
"My daughter crosses the second l in Bellamy when she signs quickly."
Helena enlarged the signature.
There was no cross.
Gabriel's voice became flat.
"Call Aurelius."
"I already did."
"Freeze all requests touching Elise's assets."
"Done."
"Who submitted this?"
Helena checked.
"A Wycliffe subsidiary called Ellerton Strategic."
Gabriel's eyes hardened.
He knew Ellerton.
Or rather, he knew what it had become.
Three months earlier, Aurelius analysts had flagged Wycliffe Holdings for unusual collateral transfers.
Gabriel had ordered an internal review but had deliberately kept himself out of it.
Elise was marrying Julian Wycliffe.
Gabriel did not want to become the suspicious father investigating his daughter's future family without cause.
So he had asked Aurelius to monitor quietly.
Now there was cause.
"Open the Wycliffe file."
Helena hesitated.
"Gabriel."
"Open it."
She entered several commands.
The report filled the screen.
Liquidity crisis.
Cross-collateralized obligations.
Undisclosed related-party transfers.
Inflated hotel valuations.
Potential covenant breaches.
Gabriel read quickly.
His jaw tightened.
"When did this escalate?"
"Within the last six weeks."
"Why was I not told?"
"You recused yourself because of Elise."
"Who is leading the review?"
"Michael Harrow."
"Call him."
Helena placed the call on speaker.
Harrow answered immediately.
"Mr. Bellamy."
"Michael, what am I looking at?"
A pause.
"Something ugly."
"Explain."
"Wycliffe Holdings appears to have used the same assets to secure obligations from multiple lenders."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"Fraud?"
"Potentially. We were waiting for external confirmations."
"And Elise?"
"Her marital trust surfaced as proposed substitute collateral this morning."
"This morning?"
"Yes."
Gabriel looked at Helena.
"Why did they need her married first?"
Harrow answered.
"Because the structure they drafted claims joint spousal control."
"Claims?"
"Under the documents they submitted, yes."
"But she did not sign."
"We know that now."
Gabriel's hand tightened around the phone.
"Do the Wycliffes know Aurelius is mine?"
"No."
Gabriel had built Aurelius thirty-two years earlier with three partners and almost no publicity.
Two decades later it had become one of Europe's most influential private credit groups.
After Marianne died, Gabriel stepped away from the public side of the business.
The ownership moved through family holding companies.
His name rarely appeared in press releases.
Conrad Wycliffe had negotiated with Aurelius representatives for years without understanding that the quiet man he dismissed at family dinners controlled the institution keeping his empire alive.
Gabriel had found the situation mildly ironic.
Until now.
"Michael," he said, "freeze every discretionary extension related to Wycliffe Holdings."
Helena looked up.
Harrow hesitated.
"That may trigger cross-default notices."
"I know."
"We should be careful not to appear retaliatory."
"We will not retaliate."
Gabriel's tone was precise.
"We will enforce the agreements exactly as written. Nothing more. Nothing less."
"Understood."
"And preserve every communication concerning the Bellamy assets."
"Already underway."
The call ended.
Helena studied him.
"You are angry."
Gabriel looked out at the approaching Manhattan skyline.
"No."
"You only get that quiet when you are furious."
"I am concerned."
"You are furious."
He did not deny it.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Elise.
DAD WHERE ARE YOU
Gabriel immediately called.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Then a second message arrived.
I NEED YOU HERE
Gabriel leaned forward.
"Driver."
The car accelerated.
Helena called hotel security while Gabriel tried Elise again.
Still nothing.
Then Clara Duvall called.
Gabriel answered.
"Clara."
Her voice was breathless.
"Mr. Bellamy, please do not panic."
That sentence had never once in human history been followed by anything reassuring.
"What happened?"
"Elise found something."
"Is she safe?"
A pause.
Gabriel's blood turned cold.
"Clara."
"She is with me right now."
"Is she injured?"
"Not badly."
The world narrowed.
"What happened?"
"Julian grabbed her."
Gabriel stopped breathing for half a second.
Clara continued quickly.
"Her dress tore. She is shaken. Security is here."
"Where is Julian?"
"Also here."
"Put Elise on."
There was movement.
Then his daughter's voice.
"Dad?"
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"I am five minutes away."
"Dad, something is wrong with the Wycliffes."
"I know."
She went silent.
"What do you mean you know?"
"I will explain when I arrive."
"They forged my signature."
"I know."
Another silence.
"How?"
"Elise."
Gabriel looked at the city lights.
"Do not sign anything. Do not leave Clara. Stay where hotel security can see you."
"Dad, who is Aurelius?"
Gabriel opened his eyes.
Helena looked at him.
The moment he had avoided for years had arrived.
"We will talk in person."
"Why is your name on their loan?"
"Because I control Aurelius."
Elise said nothing.
Gabriel could hear her breathing.
Finally she whispered, "Control it how?"
Gabriel answered.
"I founded it."
Across the line, Clara said something under her breath.
Elise sounded almost angry.
"You founded Aurelius International?"
"Yes."
"The company financing half of Wycliffe's debt?"
"Apparently more than half now."
"You never told me."
"You never needed to know."
"That might have changed."
"I agree."
Gabriel's voice softened.
"Which is why we will talk tonight."
Someone shouted in the background.
Elise gasped.
"Elise?"
The phone disconnected.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
Then he looked at Helena.
"Call security again."
She already was.
The sedan stopped beneath the hotel canopy.
Gabriel opened the door before the driver reached it.
Rain struck his shoulders.
He barely noticed.
Inside the lobby, the wedding orchestra could still be heard through the ballroom doors.
Guests laughed.
Champagne flowed.
Everything looked normal.
Then an elevator opened.
Tomas Keller stepped out with a security officer.
He saw Gabriel and stopped.
"Mr. Bellamy."
Gabriel recognized fear immediately.
"What happened to my daughter?"
Tomas swallowed.
"Julian knows she has the files."
Gabriel looked toward the elevators.
"What files?"
Tomas answered with four words.
"Enough to bury them."
May you like
Then the ballroom erupted with the sound of something breaking upstairs.
Gabriel ran.
