Chapter 4 - REBECCA SAID IT STARTED WITH A PROMOTION
Rebecca slept at a hotel that night.
Ethan refused to let her stay in the house.
Not out of cruelty.
Because he could not look at her without feeling his hands shake.
The next morning, she asked to meet with lawyers present.
Ethan brought Samuel Archer, a family-law attorney recommended by Claire.
Rebecca brought her own counsel.
Charles did not attend.
That mattered.
Rebecca began with the affair.
Six months.
It started after Charles offered her a promotion to vice president of strategic partnerships.
At first, she said, it was emotional.
Late dinners.
Travel.
Compliments.
Confidences.
Then physical.
Ethan listened without interrupting.
That silence broke Rebecca more than shouting would have.
Then Samuel asked about R.C. Consulting.
Rebecca’s face changed.
She said Charles created the arrangement.
He told her the company could not increase her salary quickly without board scrutiny, so consulting payments would “bridge the compensation gap.”
“Did you perform consulting work?” Samuel asked.
“Some.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you invoice for it?”
Rebecca looked down.
“Charles’s office prepared the invoices.”
Ethan stared at her.
“So you took nearly two million dollars and didn’t know what you were being paid for?”
She started crying.
“I thought it was compensation.”
Samuel did not react.
“Did Charles ever say the payments were tied to your relationship?”
“No.”
“Did you ever threaten to reveal the relationship if the payments stopped?”
Rebecca looked offended.
“No.”
That distinction mattered.
Affair.
Questionable compensation.
Possibly fraudulent billing.
Related, maybe.
But not automatically the same crime.
Then Samuel asked about the $850,000 transfer.
May you like
Rebecca whispered:
“That one wasn’t mine.”
