Chapter 4 - Blood and Business
Richard looked much smaller when he was marched into my office by two massive security guards. His tie was loosened, his hair disheveled. The smug aristocrat from the lobby had been replaced by a sweating, desperate man.
"Amelia, you have to listen to me," he started immediately, his hands raised in surrender. "It's not what it looks like. The market has been tough. I had to make difficult decisions to keep the company afloat."
I didn't say a word. I simply slid a thick stack of printed bank statements across the desk. The top sheet showed a transfer of five million dollars to a Cayman Islands account registered under his wife's maiden name.
Richard stared at the paper. His mouth opened and closed like a fish suffocating on dry land.
"You stole from me," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "But honestly, Richard? The money doesn't even bother me that much. I can make the money back. What I can't forgive is what you did to this place. What you let your wife do to the people here."
"Vanessa is high-strung!" he pleaded, leaning over the desk. "You know how she gets! She was just stressed! And I was trying to protect your legacy, Amelia! You abandoned us! You just left and expected me to carry the weight of this massive corporation!"
"I left you as a steward, Richard. Not a king." I stood up, leaning forward to match his posture. "I paid you handsomely. I trusted you implicitly because my father asked me to look out for you. And the moment my back was turned, you turned my home into a slaughterhouse."
"We're family!" he yelled, tears of frustration finally spilling over. "You can't do this to me! You can't send me to jail! It will kill my mother!"
"Your mother should have raised a better son," I replied coldly.
"Amelia, please," he begged, falling to his knees, his hands gripping the edge of my desk. "I'll give it all back. I'll divorce Vanessa. I'll sign everything over. Just don't call the authorities."
I looked down at him, feeling a strange mix of pity and absolute disgust. He was a coward. He had always been a coward. But as I looked at the offshore documents again, something didn't add up. Richard wasn't smart enough to set up an international money-laundering network on his own. Someone else was pulling the strings.
"You didn't orchestrate this alone, Richard," I said softly. "You're not clever enough. Who is your silent partner?"
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Richard's eyes darted nervously to the door, a new kind of fear replacing his panic. "I... I can't tell you that. If I tell you that, they'll ruin me."
"I am already ruining you, Richard," I whispered. "Tell me who it is, or I hand these documents to the FBI right now."
