Chapter 10 - SARAH'S NAME
The first forged approval appeared at 9:03 the next morning.
LARKSPUR CONSULTING — $410,000.
Approver:
SARAH BENNETT, CFO.
Sarah had never seen it.
The electronic record said otherwise.
Two more followed.
$375,000.
$290,000.
More than a million dollars apparently authorized by my wife.
Robert’s attorney moved fast.
Before police finished interviewing Neil, Bennett Grand Events announced an internal investigation into “financial irregularities within the finance department.”
Sarah read the press release from her hospital room.
“My own company is investigating me.”
“No,” I said. “Your father is using the company to investigate you.”
The distinction did not make her feel better.
Board members began calling.
One asked whether pregnancy-related stress had affected Sarah’s judgment.
I wanted to reach through the phone.
Sarah remained calm.
“I did not authorize those invoices.”
The director answered carefully.
“Then we need to determine who did.”
That was fair.
But fairness felt cruel when the evidence had been manufactured to point at her.
The company’s IT team traced the three approvals.
Sarah’s token had been used.
But the login originated from finance-office workstation F-22.
Neil’s desk.
Neil admitted the workstation was his.
Then surprised everyone.
“I didn't submit them.”
“Who had your password?” Sarah asked.
“No one.”
“Then how?”
Neil thought for a moment.
“Robert used my office twice while I was traveling.”
“When?”
One of those dates matched the second forged approval.
That helped.
It did not prove Robert personally pressed the button.
The board placed Sarah on paid administrative leave while the investigation continued.
She laughed once.
A short, broken sound.
“My father pushed me down stairs, and now I’m suspended.”
Chloe sat beside her.
“I’ll vote with you.”
Sarah looked at her.
“For what?”
“If Dad tries to remove you permanently.”
Chloe’s eighteen percent suddenly mattered.
So did Evelyn’s ten.
Robert could no longer assume his daughters would divide.
That afternoon a gossip site published a video from the birthday banquet.
Not the security footage.
A guest’s phone recording.
It began after Robert grabbed Sarah.
From that angle, Sarah appeared to lunge toward Evelyn while Robert stepped between them.
Then Sarah disappeared backward.
The actual shove was hidden by another guest.
The headline said:
PREGNANT CFO IN FAMILY BRAWL BEFORE FINANCIAL INVESTIGATION.
Someone had leaked the internal investigation within hours.
Evelyn released a statement saying the family was “deeply concerned for Sarah’s physical and emotional well-being.”
Sarah turned off the television.
“She’s making me sound unstable.”
“Yes.”
“That’s what she did to Chloe.”
Chloe nodded.
After the glass incident, Evelyn told relatives Chloe’s medication had made her confused.
Same pattern.
Discredit the person before they could describe what happened.
Then Sarah’s phone buzzed.
An email from her personal account.
Sent to herself three weeks earlier.
Subject:
IF THEY COME AFTER ME.
She stared at it.
“I don't remember sending this.”
Attached was an encrypted file.
And Sarah’s own note said:
Mark knows the password.
May you like
I didn’t.
📖 Sarah’s forged approvals gave Robert a way to blame her, but an encrypted file she had secretly prepared suggested she had anticipated the attack before even telling me. 👇
