Chapter 2 - Richard’s Warning
Clara spent the night in a private hotel twenty minutes from downtown.
She slept for forty-three minutes.
At 5:17 a.m., someone knocked on her door.
Three slow knocks.
A pause.
Then two.
Clara grabbed the heavy brass lamp from the bedside table.
“Who is it?”
“Richard.”
She froze.
“Open the door, Clara.”
His voice sounded broken.
“Please.”
Clara called hotel security before opening it.
Richard stood outside looking ten years older than he had at dinner.
His tie was gone.
His shirt collar was open.
His eyes were red.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
Security remained at the end of the corridor.
Clara allowed him inside.
He immediately looked toward the windows.
“Close the curtains.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“I’m done taking orders from Vances.”
He nodded.
“You should be.”
She sat across from him.
“Tell me about Julian’s account.”
Richard looked at his hands.
“I can’t.”
“Then leave.”
“I came because if I don’t tell you something, you’re going to keep digging.”
“Yes.”
“And if you keep digging, people will get hurt.”
She studied him.
“Did Julian threaten you?”
Richard looked toward the door.
“That’s not the right question.”
“What is?”
“Who gave Julian permission?”
Clara’s skin went cold.
“Permission for what?”
Richard stood.
He paced twice.
Then stopped.
“My father built Vance Consolidated from a small shipping company. By the time I inherited it, there were twelve subsidiaries. We sold most of them twenty years ago.”
Clara knew parts of the story.
Richard had once been wealthy.
Then, according to Teresa, bad investments had destroyed everything.
“What happened to the money?”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“My wife happened.”
“Teresa?”
“She wanted status. Houses. Clubs. Donations. People knowing our name.”
“That still doesn’t explain Julian’s account.”
“No.”
Richard sat again.
“When Julian was twenty-seven, he discovered something in the company archives.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Clara waited.
Richard’s eyes filled with shame.
“My father had hidden money offshore for decades.”
“How much?”
“Nobody knew exactly.”
“And Julian took it?”
“No.”
Richard looked directly at her.
“He learned how.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Richard jumped.
Hotel security announced itself.
Clara checked the peephole.
Only the guard.
She opened the door.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
When Clara turned back, Richard was standing.
“I need to go.”
“No. You need to finish.”
He shook his head.
“You don’t understand what Julian became after he found that ledger.”
“I understand exactly what he became.”
“No.”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“You understand your husband. I’m talking about the system around him.”
Clara remembered the corporations.
Stone Harbor.
Ridgewell.
North Crest.
“Who else is involved?”
Richard walked toward the door.
“Ask yourself why Marcus has never held a job longer than eight months and still owns a seventy-thousand-dollar car.”
“Julian pays him.”
“Sometimes.”
“Teresa?”
Richard’s silence answered.
“And Serena?”
“I don’t know how much she knows.”
Clara blocked the doorway.
“What does CV TERMINATION EVENT mean?”
All color disappeared from his face.
“Where did you see that?”
“The audit.”
Richard grabbed her arms.
Not violently.
Desperately.
“Do not open it.”
She pulled away.
“Why?”
“Because your initials should never have been there.”
“What is it?”
Richard’s voice became a whisper.
“Insurance.”
Clara stared at him.
“What kind of insurance?”
He did not answer.
“Richard.”
He backed toward the door.
“I never agreed to that part.”
Her stomach turned.
“Agreed to what?”
Before he could respond, his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Then at Clara.
His face collapsed.
“They know I’m here.”
“Who?”
Richard answered the call.
He listened.
Said nothing.
Then ended it.
“What happened?”
Richard opened the door.
“Go somewhere Julian doesn’t know.”
“Richard.”
“And don’t trust Daniel.”
Clara stopped.
“My attorney?”
Richard looked at her one final time.
May you like
“Ask him who recommended him to you seven years ago.”
Then he walked away.
