Chapter 8 - CHARLES BENNETT
Charles walked into the bridal lounge eleven minutes later and locked the door behind him.
“Give me Ethan’s phone.”
Daniel stood.
“No.”
His father didn’t raise his voice.
Charles Bennett never needed to.
At sixty-eight, he still controlled enough of Bennett Development that people changed posture when he entered a room.
I had once done it too.
Not anymore.
“Why were you with Ethan?” I asked.
Charles looked at Lily’s wrist.
The red mark was still visible.
“What happened to her?”
“Vanessa.”
His gaze moved to the bride.
Vanessa stiffened.
“You put your hands on my granddaughter?”
“She was—”
Charles raised one finger.
Vanessa stopped speaking.
I hated how satisfying that was.
Then Charles looked at me.
“Claire, take Lily home.”
“No.”
“This is company business.”
“Someone used my daughter’s trust.”
“No money left her trust.”
“You knew?”
Daniel stepped forward.
“How long?”
Charles exhaled.
“Three weeks.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You knew for three weeks and said nothing?”
“I needed to know whether the attempted transfer was incompetence, fraud, or an internal test.”
“An internal test?”
“Your brother was investigating.”
“And now he’s in a hospital.”
Charles’s jaw tightened.
That was the first genuine emotion I saw.
“I know.”
I placed Lily on the sofa beside me and kept hold of her hand.
“Who had access to the authorization package?”
Charles looked at me.
“Daniel.”
“Obviously.”
“Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“Martin Shaw.”
Daniel’s estate attorney.
“And?”
Charles hesitated.
That hesitation told me there was another name.
“Who?”
“Me.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Daniel’s shoulders dropped slightly.
His own father had access.
Charles continued.
“But access doesn’t prove anything. The package was assembled from multiple documents, some authentic, some fabricated.”
“Why tell Ethan not to answer?”
“Because I don’t know who is listening.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“You sound guilty.”
“I sound cautious.”
Then Charles asked to see Lily’s half of the drawing.
I refused.
His expression didn’t change.
“Claire, the reverse side may contain privileged material.”
“It was in Vanessa’s recycling tray.”
Charles turned toward her.
That surprised him.
Vanessa said, “I don’t know how it got there.”
Charles studied her for several seconds.
Then he asked, “Where’s the other half?”
“Missing,” Daniel said.
Charles closed his eyes.
“Of course it is.”
I leaned forward.
“What was on it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You recognized the page.”
“No. I recognized the problem.”
He reached into his jacket and removed a folded photocopy.
It showed the same handwritten $2.4 million notation.
But his copy was complete.
The name beside the amount was not Bennett.
It was BENSON.
I knew that name.
Everyone in the Bennett family did.
Laura Benson had served as Charles Bennett’s executive assistant for twenty-two years.
She had retired six months earlier.
According to Charles, she had also died eleven days ago.
Daniel stared at the photocopy.
“Why is Laura’s name on Lily’s trust paperwork?”
Charles looked toward the locked door.
“Because Laura was the person who discovered the first unauthorized transfer.”
My pulse jumped.
“You said the transfer failed.”
“Lily’s did.”
Charles looked directly at his son.
“Laura found another one that didn’t.”
“How much?”
Charles answered quietly.
May you like
“Fourteen million dollars.”
📖 Laura Benson’s name connected Lily’s trust to a successful multimillion-dollar theft, and suddenly her death became impossible for me to dismiss as irrelevant. 👇
