Chapter 3 - Receipts on the Silver Tray
The air in the dining room turned instantly brittle. Nathan shoved his chair back, his face darkening with anger. ""You're acting like a maniac, Claire! You think you can bully us because your grandfather had money? I built Riverhouse! My sweat, my concepts, my name!""
""Your name?"" Claire echoed softly. She tapped a silver service bell beside her plate.
Instead of the estate butler bringing out the main course, the double doors opened to reveal Arthur Vance and two forensic auditors carrying heavy leather binders. Arthur set a polished silver platter directly in front of Lila Grant.
Upon the silver tray lay no food—only a neat stack of bound financial dossiers stamped with the seal of the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
""What is this?"" Lila asked, her delicate voice tightening with genuine apprehension.
""That,"" Claire explained, sitting back down, ""is an itemized breakdown of the three hundred and eighty thousand dollars Nathan transferred from Riverhouse's payroll account into 'Grant Creative Concepts' over the last four months.""
Lila’s hand instinctively reached for her designer purse. ""Those were legitimate consulting fees—""
""Really?"" Claire raised an eyebrow. ""Because according to the bank drafts, eighty thousand dollars was earmarked for 'brand research' in St. Barts over the weekend of July twelfth. The exact weekend Nathan claimed he was in Chicago attending a hospitality summit.""
Nathan’s face went pasty white. ""Claire, you have no right to audit my company's private vendors!""
""It isn't your company, Nathan,"" Arthur Vance intervened, his stern legal tone cutting through the room like a scalpel. ""Under the commercial guarantee agreement signed three years ago, Hawthorne Property Trust holds a ninety percent security lien over all intellectual property, operating accounts, and lease agreements for the Riverhouse restaurant group. Mr. Whitmore was granted executive operational discretion conditional upon fiduciary integrity.""
Arthur flipped open the first binder, exposing a page covered in red-ink audit stamps.
""Misappropriating investor capital to finance personal luxury goods and romantic getaways for a third-party contractor is a felony breach of fiduciary trust, Mr. Whitmore. In plain terms: you embezzled money guaranteed by your wife's trust to pay for your mistress.""
Lila pushed her chair away from the table, suddenly looking nauseous. ""Nathan... you told me the money came from your personal dividends! You swore your family owned the entire equity fund!""
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""Shut up, Lila!"" Nathan roared, completely dropping his polished mask.
Claire watched them unravel, her expression cool and serene. ""Don't yell at your guest, Nathan. It's bad manners. Especially when you're both about to be escorted off my property by state process servers.""
