Chapter 13 - THE THIRTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLAR WEDDING GIFT
The money had traveled through six accounts.
Switzerland.
Cayman Islands.
Delaware.
Nevada.
Then into a private investment vehicle controlled by Andrew.
Thirty-four million dollars.
Three days before our wedding.
Daniel worked through the night tracing it.
At 3:16 a.m., he entered the conference room.
“We found the origin.”
I looked up.
“Where?”
He placed a report in front of my father.
The money had not come from Escalante Global.
It had come from Elena Escalante’s dormant estate account.
My mother’s estate.
My father stared at the page.
“That account should have required two approvals.”
“It did.”
Daniel pointed to the signatures.
Gabriel Escalante.
And Mariana Escalante.
My signature had been forged too.
Again.
I suddenly remembered the twenty-six-million-dollar guarantee.
Someone had been practicing.
Not simply forging my signature once.
Using it repeatedly.
Andrew entered through the doorway with two attorneys.
I stood.
“This is a private office.”
“One I’m apparently accused of robbing.”
He looked at the report.
“So you found it.”
My stomach tightened.
“You knew.”
“I discovered it last year.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I wanted to know where it came from.”
“Thirty-four million dollars appeared in your account and you quietly investigated?”
He looked at me.
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
I almost laughed.
“You think trust is the issue?”
Andrew removed a folder.
Inside were emails.
Old emails.
Between Margaret and a man named Victor Hale.
The same banker involved in the forged loan.
Andrew continued.
“My mother arranged the transfer.”
“Why?”
“She believed the money belonged to the Whitmores.”
My father slammed the table.
“That was Elena’s estate.”
Andrew didn’t flinch.
“My mother believed Elena took everything from my father.”
“She called the transfer repayment.”
I looked at him.
“And you kept it.”
His silence answered.
“You knew it was stolen.”
“I used it to stabilize Whitmore.”
“You used my dead mother’s money to build the company you later claimed you created.”
Andrew’s voice rose.
“My father built that company.”
“With money he stole from my mother.”
“That isn’t my fault.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“But keeping stolen money was your choice.”
Andrew’s face tightened.
He had no answer.
Then Daniel spoke.
“This transaction changes things.”
Andrew looked at him.
“How?”
“It establishes direct misappropriation from the Elena Escalante estate.”
“Thirty-four million plus investment growth.”
“Recovery could exceed sixty million.”
Andrew laughed bitterly.
“Take it.”
We stared at him.
He continued.
“Take the company.”
“Take the mansion.”
“Take the money.”
“I don’t care anymore.”
I studied his face.
He meant it.
Something else was happening.
“What do you want?”
Andrew looked at me.
“My father alive.”
“My mother investigated.”
“And the truth about your mother’s death.”
My anger sharpened.
“Don’t use my mother.”
“I’m not.”
He lowered his voice.
“Charles told me something.”
My father stepped forward.
“What?”
Andrew looked at him.
“He said Margaret didn’t order the truck driver.”
Silence.
My father stared at him.
“Then who did?”
Andrew swallowed.
“He doesn’t know.”
“But he knows she paid him afterward.”
I frowned.
“Afterward?”
“Yes.”
“The twenty thousand wasn’t payment for killing Elena.”
“It was payment to disappear.”
The entire case shifted.
If Charles was telling the truth, Margaret had helped cover up the crash.
But she might not have ordered it.
I turned toward Daniel.
“Where’s Luis Herrera?”
His face tightened.
“The agents reached the hospital this morning.”
“And?”
“He vanished eleven minutes before they arrived.”
My father cursed.
Someone was still protecting him.
Someone with access to federal movements.
Someone who had been hiding for fourteen years.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A weak male voice spoke.
“Mariana Escalante?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Luis Herrera.”
Everyone in the room froze.
“I drove the truck that killed your mother.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Then he whispered.
“But I wasn’t trying to kill Elena.”
“I was trying to kill the man sitting beside her.”
My eyes moved toward my father.
May you like
Luis continued.
“The target was Gabriel.”
