Chapter 3 - The Missing Millions
The first warning came from Evelyn Shaw.
She called Nicholas late one evening while he was helping Mackenzie build a wooden dollhouse in the garage.
“We found irregularities in the Bellamy accounts,” she said.
Nicholas set down the tiny hammer.
“What kind of irregularities?”
“Inflated labor charges. Materials billed twice. Subcontractors who don’t exist.”
“How much?”
“We’re still calculating.”
“Give me the current number.”
Evelyn paused.
“Two point seven million dollars.”
Nicholas looked through the open garage door toward the house.
Isabella was inside preparing for another foundation dinner.
“Does Frank know we’re auditing him?”
“Not yet.”
“Keep it that way.”
“Nicholas, this isn’t an accounting mistake.”
“I know.”
“Then stop protecting him.”
Nicholas glanced at Mackenzie. She was painting the dollhouse door bright red, humming to herself.
“I’m protecting my daughter from watching her family collapse.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“You didn’t cause this collapse.”
Nicholas ended the call and returned to the dollhouse, but the numbers followed him.
Over the next two months, Northstar’s audit uncovered a network of fraudulent invoices connected to Frank, Preston, and two other relatives.
Frank had charged Northstar for workers who did not exist.
Preston had collected an executive salary through a consulting company registered to his girlfriend.
The family’s luxury vacations had been listed as client development expenses.
Even Isabella’s foundation had received money intended for affordable housing programs.
Nicholas felt sick when he read the reports.
He asked Isabella whether she knew anything about the transfers.
She became defensive immediately.
“My foundation helps people.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“My father manages the finances.”
“Did you approve payments from Northstar’s housing fund?”
She folded her arms.
“Why are you interrogating me?”
“Because your signature is on the documents.”
“I sign hundreds of things.”
“You should know what you’re signing.”
Her expression hardened.
“This is exactly why my family doesn’t respect you. You walk around fixing pipes and suddenly think you can lecture people who run real organizations.”
Nicholas stared at her.
She had no idea that the man she dismissed could close every organization her family controlled with a single board resolution.
He still did not threaten her.
Instead, he placed copies of the documents on the table.
“Read them.”
Isabella pushed them away.
“I’m late.”
She left for the dinner without opening the folder.
That night, Nicholas reviewed the security structure protecting his shares, his properties, and Mackenzie’s trust.
His attorney, Daniel Price, confirmed that the prenuptial agreement remained valid. Assets owned before the marriage and held through Northstar would not become marital property.
Nicholas had never expected to use those protections against Isabella.
But he began to understand that he might need them to protect Mackenzie.
A week later, the audit team discovered something worse.
Frank had forged Nicholas’s signature on loan guarantees.
If those documents had been accepted, Northstar could have been exposed to nearly forty million dollars in debt.
That was the moment Nicholas stopped seeing Frank as an arrogant relative.
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He began seeing him as a threat.
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