Chapter 6 - THE THIRTY-EIGHT MILLION
Mercer Holdings was not collapsing.
Not yet.
That made the theft harder to see.
The company owned logistics facilities, commercial property, and a medical distribution business.
Profitable.
Prestigious.
Liquid on paper.
But $38 million had moved through internal service companies over six years.
Small enough each quarter to hide.
Large enough over time to become dangerous.
Richard said:
“Charles discovered it six months ago.”
“Who had access?” Victoria asked.
“Senior finance. Board audit committee. Charles. Serena.”
Serena snapped:
“Don’t look at me.”
Elias laughed.
“You were the only name he said.”
“I ran the foundation, not treasury.”
Richard corrected:
“You served on audit oversight for four years.”
Serena stared at him.
“You think I stole?”
“No.”
“Then say it.”
“I don’t know who stole.”
That answer angered everyone equally.
Victoria asked:
“Why didn’t Charles report it?”
Richard looked uncomfortable.
“Because he believed the thief was family.”
Serena laughed.
“Of course.”
Charles had spent his life protecting the Mercer name.
Even while preparing a will designed to destroy its illusions.
Elias asked:
“Can we sell enough assets to cover it?”
“Yes.”
“Then why ninety days?”
“Because if the debt covenant is breached before recovery, control provisions change. Outside lenders can force breakup.”
Serena’s face hardened.
“That company has been in our family seventy years.”
Elias looked at her.
“Now you care about something besides the house.”
She stepped toward him.
“You know nothing about it.”
“That’s true.”
The honesty disarmed her.
Elias continued:
“I know nothing about running a corporation. I know how to frame houses, repair roofs, and not freeze when payroll is late.”
Serena smirked.
“Perfect CEO.”
“I didn’t ask.”
Victoria watched.
Elias was not pretending competence.
That made him more credible than Serena expected.
Richard proposed interim professional management.
Serena opposed immediately.
“If we surrender control now, lenders smell weakness.”
Elias asked:
“Then what do you suggest?”
“For ninety days, you sign voting proxy to me.”
Victoria almost laughed.
There it was.
Serena’s first route back to control.
Elias said:
“No.”
“You just admitted you know nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Then why say no?”
“Because you want it too much.”
Silence.
Serena’s face hardened.
Then she turned to Victoria.
“Convince him.”
“No.”
“You want the company sold?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Victoria looked at both.
“We find the thief.”
Serena laughed.
“You?”
“I was married to Charles for eleven years. People talked around me because they thought I was decorative.”
Richard looked at her.
“That may actually help.”
Then the first clue appeared.
A shell company called Red Harbor Advisory received $4.2 million from Mercer subsidiaries.
Its registered address was a vacant office.
But the bank signatory belonged to someone named Julian Hart.
Victoria knew the name.
Charles’s former chief of staff.
Dead three years.
Serena frowned.
“He died before half these transfers.”
Exactly.
Someone was using a dead man’s credentials.
Richard asked IT to trace access.
The login that authorized recent payments came from inside Mercer House.
Specifically:
the west wing.
Everyone went silent.
Serena stared at Victoria.
Then smiled slowly.
“You were living closest.”
May you like
Victoria’s stomach tightened.
The theft had just become personal.
