Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Coup
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Dawn arrived over the city in shades of steel gray and bitter sleet.
By eight in the morning, Laurel was sitting in Marcus Vance’s underground office surrounded by ten computer monitors.
The numbers poured across the screens like rivers of dark ink.
"Look here," Marcus muttered, tapping a glowing spreadsheet with his pen.
"Grant Varelli has routed forty-two million dollars through the children's clinic foundation over the last eighteen months."
"It’s not charity," Laurel said, her gray-green eyes hardening as she traced the routing codes.
"It’s money laundering for the shoreline redevelopment project."
"Silas signed off on every single transfer," Marcus warned her.
Laurel leaned closer to the monitor.
"No, he didn't."
"That’s not Silas’s digital signature."
"Look at the third character in the encryption key."
Marcus magnified the code.
A small gasp escaped his lips.
"Grant forged it."
"Grant forged it using Silas's dormant corporate identity," Laurel said, a cold smile touching her bruised cheek.
"Silas thinks he’s expanding his family legacy, but his cousin is setting him up to take the entire federal fall."
"What do you want to do?" Marcus asked.
"Do we go to the prosecutors?"
"Not yet," Laurel said, rising to her feet.
"Silas built this empire by believing he could control every person in his orbit."
"He needs to learn that the person holding the foundation together wasn't him."
She pulled her hair back into a clean, severe knot.
She had replaced her torn dress with a tailored charcoal suit Marcus’s assistant had brought her.
She checked the time on her watch.
The annual Varelli Enterprise Christmas Board Meeting began at ten sharp.
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"Print the offshore ledgers, Marcus," she commanded.
"It's time I attended my last executive meeting."
