Chapter 3 - The Paper Trail
Two weeks passed, thick with corporate tension and polite, suffocating silence.
Daniel and I communicated only through emails and Elena.
Chloe had returned to work, skittish and avoiding my gaze like a frightened mouse.
She wore a new designer watch.
I noticed it during a staff meeting on Thursday, the diamonds catching the fluorescent light.
I sat at the head of the conference table, watching Daniel present the quarterly projections.
Chloe sat in the corner, taking notes, her eyes occasionally darting to him with naked adoration.
“Therefore, our liquid assets are slightly tied up in the new offshore expansion,” Daniel concluded, flashing his charming smile.
I leaned forward. “How slightly?”
Daniel blinked. “Just a temporary reallocation. Standard procedure.”
“Send me the routing numbers after this meeting. I want to review them.”
His smile faltered for a fraction of a second. “I can handle it, Natalie. You’re busy.”
“Send them,” I repeated, leaving no room for debate.
After the meeting, I went straight to Marcus’s office downtown.
Marcus slid a thick manila folder across his mahogany desk.
“You have good instincts, Natalie. Though you probably wish you didn't.”
I opened the folder.
Bank statements, property deeds, and credit card bills spilled out.
“He hasn't just been sleeping with her,” Marcus said gently.
“He’s been funding her,” I murmured, scanning the highlighted lines.
“Over two hundred thousand dollars in the last ten months. Disguised as 'offshore consulting fees'.”
My chest tightened. The money wasn't the issue. The deceit was.
“He bought a condo,” I said, staring at a deed.
“In Tribeca. Under an LLC, but the signatory is Chloe Vale.”
He had taken my money, the money I earned working eighty-hour weeks, to build a safe house for his ego.
“This is embezzlement, Marcus.”
“It is. And because he is a partner in your firm, it complicates the divorce.”
“No,” I said, closing the folder and looking up. “It simplifies it.”
Marcus raised an eyebrow.
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“He wanted to feel like a powerful man,” I said, a cold clarity settling over me.
“Let’s see how powerful he is when I take it all back.”
