Chapter 5 - Digging Up the Rot
It took Hayes’s brother exactly five days to find the rot beneath Grant’s pristine facade.
We met at a quiet coffee shop off-base. Hayes slid a thick manila folder across the table.
“Your brother is a walking felony,” Hayes said, sipping his black coffee. “On paper, he’s the VP of your father’s logistics company. But in reality, he’s been bleeding the company dry for three years. He set up two shell companies in Delaware, billing your father’s firm for consulting services that don’t exist.”
I opened the folder, my eyes scanning the highlighted bank transfers. “How much?”
“Nearly two million dollars.”
I sat back, stunned. Two million. That explained the sweat. That explained the desperation. Grant wasn’t just a golden child; he was a parasite killing the host.
“Does my father know?” I asked.
“Hard to tell,” Hayes replied. “But given that your father’s company is suddenly defaulting on loans and liquidating assets, I’d say the old man is starting to feel the pinch. Grant is panicking. If Vanessa gets a criminal record, she loses her real estate license. If she loses her income, Grant’s house of cards collapses because he can’t cover his personal debts.”
It all made sense now. The hostility, the explosive rage at the barbecue. They were living on a powder keg, and I had just lit a match by refusing to back down.
I looked at the documents again. “Hayes... what about my name? Is there anything tied to me?”
Hayes hesitated. “Yeah. That’s the other thing. Grant took out a secondary mortgage on his house six months ago. He needed a co-signer with a pristine, government-backed credit history. He forged your signature, Lauren.”
The coffee shop around me seemed to fade out. He forged my signature. My brother had committed identity theft and bank fraud, tying my financial future to his sinking ship.
May you like
A cold, absolute calm washed over me. The kind of calm you feel right before you pull the trigger.
“Keep this file,” I told Hayes, sliding it back. “Give a copy to your brother. Tell him to prepare to send it to the FBI field office when I give the signal.”
