Chapter 13 - LAUREN’S PRICE
Lauren answered our call from her kitchen in Virginia.
When Maya mentioned the two million dollars, Lauren’s face changed.
“I never received two million dollars.”
Thomas checked the routing information again.
“It was paid to a settlement company bearing your case reference.”
“Then someone stole it.”
Lauren walked away from the camera.
When she returned, she was holding an old folder.
“My actual settlement was one hundred and twenty thousand.”
Silence.
“Brenda told me that was all they could afford.”
Thomas looked sick.
The records showed two million leaving Wexler Hospitality.
Lauren received one hundred and twenty thousand.
The rest disappeared.
Maya asked who handled the settlement.
Lauren named an attorney.
Charles Vane.
Thomas immediately recognized him.
“He’s still the Wexler family attorney.”
I felt the structure forming.
Humiliate.
Isolate.
Control.
Use private settlements.
Move corporate money.
Blame the women.
Repeat.
Lauren’s hands trembled.
“I thought I was the only one.”
“You weren’t,” I said.
She looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not exposing them.”
“You survived them.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No.”
I leaned closer.
“But you can help stop them now.”
Lauren nodded.
For the first time, she looked determined instead of haunted.
“I kept everything.”
Derek’s emails.
Brenda’s messages.
Copies of settlement drafts.
Photographs.
Even a recording from the night Derek blocked her car in the garage and demanded she sign.
Maya’s expression sharpened.
“Send it all.”
By evening, the evidence had become impossible to dismiss as a family dispute.
Northstar expanded the forensic audit.
Outside counsel notified insurers and appropriate authorities where required.
The independent board suspended Derek from all financial authority pending investigation.
Brenda was removed from company accounts.
Then something unexpected happened.
Employees began talking.
A hotel manager described being ordered to classify Brenda’s personal renovation as a business expense.
An assistant produced invoices for Derek’s bachelor trip billed as a recruitment event.
A former payroll supervisor described fake consulting payments.
Once the first person spoke, the silence shattered.
By Friday morning, forty-three employees had provided information.
Derek called me from a new number.
I declined.
He called again.
Declined.
Then he sent one text.
YOU THINK THEY’RE LOYAL TO YOU?
I didn’t respond.
Another arrived.
THEY’LL TURN ON YOU TOO.
Then a third.
ASK THOMAS WHAT HE SIGNED.
I stared at the message.
Across the conference room, Thomas was speaking quietly with an auditor.
For the first time since he came forward, I wondered what he had not told us.
Maya read the text.
Then she looked at Thomas.
“Thomas.”
He stopped speaking.
“What?”
Maya placed my phone on the table.
His face changed before he even finished reading.
That was enough.
May you like
I felt my chest tighten.
“What did you sign?”
