Chapter 9 - THE EMPTY OFFICE
Police found Neil four hours later.
He was not kidnapped.
That mattered.
He was sitting inside a hotel room near the airport with a one-way ticket to Toronto.
Robert had not dragged him anywhere.
Robert had given him a choice.
Leave.
Or face exposure.
Neil chose leave.
Detective Torres stopped him before he reached security.
His attorney arrived soon afterward.
By evening, he agreed to give a recorded statement.
Sarah watched remotely from the hospital.
Neil admitted disabling her office camera.
He admitted approving false Larkspur invoices.
He admitted helping Robert keep the Crown Meridian loan outside Sarah’s normal reporting package.
But then he gave us the first major answer about motive.
The $22 million loan had not been taken to rescue Bennett Grand Events.
It had been taken to rescue Robert.
Four years earlier, Robert secretly invested almost twelve million dollars of personal and family-trust money in a luxury resort development in Nevada.
The project collapsed.
Robert faced personal guarantees.
He could have admitted the loss.
Instead, he borrowed against company assets.
Larkspur provided a channel to move corporate funds without showing them as direct personal payments.
Evelyn helped because her own trust assets were tied to Robert’s guarantees.
They were not protecting a legacy.
They were protecting themselves from the consequences of a disastrous private investment.
“How much is still owed?” Sarah asked.
Neil looked toward his lawyer.
“Seventeen million.”
“And when does Crown Meridian renew?”
“Six weeks.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
The company’s directors had no idea.
Neither did the outside shareholders.
If the lender discovered fraudulent financial reporting, it could accelerate.
One lie had become another.
Then another.
The birthday shove made more sense.
Sarah was the CFO.
If she disclosed the hidden loan and Larkspur payments, Robert could lose his position, his reputation, his personal wealth, and possibly face criminal investigation.
Evelyn would lose the life she had built around control and status.
Chloe whispered, “They were going to let Sarah take the blame.”
Neil nodded.
The plan was already forming before the party.
Robert intended to claim Sarah had approved the Larkspur expenses herself.
“How?” I asked.
Neil looked at Sarah.
“Your electronic authorization.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I never approved Larkspur.”
“I know.”
“What did they do?”
Neil swallowed.
“They copied your approval token.”
The room went silent.
Sarah’s corporate authentication device had gone missing two weeks earlier.
She assumed she misplaced it during an office renovation.
Neil now told us it had been taken from her desk.
And used.
Three Larkspur invoices had been retroactively approved under Sarah’s credentials.
The scheme was changing direction.
If Sarah discovered the fraud, Robert did not merely intend to deny it.
May you like
He intended to put her name on it.
📖 Neil finally exposed Robert’s private financial disaster, but the stolen approval token showed Sarah was being prepared as the person who would take the fall. 👇
