“The accounts are frozen.”
Seven seconds later, my phone rang.
I answered while making myself a fresh cup of coffee.
Daniel was already shouting.
“What did you do?!”
I looked through the kitchen window as the first light of morning touched the sky.
“Good morning, Daniel.”
“Don’t play games with me! The transfers were rejected. My cards aren’t working. Chloe’s card isn’t working either. What did you do?”
I calmly asked,
“Are you talking about the corporate expense cards you used for luxury hotels, flights, and personal gifts?”
Silence.
Then his voice changed.
“Audrey, sweetheart, you’re confused.”
I almost laughed.
“I found twelve suspicious authorizations, three attempted transfers totaling more than eleven million dollars, about $1.2 million in unauthorized personal expenses, and another $3.6 million paid to a consulting company whose main activity appears to be traveling with you.”
Daniel stopped talking.
In the background, I could hear Chloe whispering.
Finally, he tried another approach.
“You don’t understand how the company works.”
That one actually made me smile.
My company.
My mother had left me sixty-eight percent of Sterling Global through an irrevocable family trust.
After Daniel and I married, I appointed him Chief Operating Officer.
That had been my choice.
Giving him ownership had not.
Not one voting share had ever been transferred into his name.
Daniel had mistaken my lack of interest in office politics for a lack of authority.
For years, he operated under limited executive authorization that allowed him to manage normal day-to-day business.
But that authorization contained a clause he had always mocked.
