Chapter 13 - The Financial Audit
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I didn't just want a divorce; I wanted to know exactly how deep the betrayal ran. I authorized Marcus to immediately hire a forensic accountant to audit the company’s books for the last five years.
By Tuesday afternoon, I was sitting in Marcus’s office staring at a stack of highlighted banking records that made my blood boil all over again.
“He wasn't just paying her a salary,” the accountant, a quiet man named David, explained as he slid a spreadsheet across the table. “Daniel has been actively embezzling corporate funds to finance Lauren’s lifestyle. He classified her apartment rent as a 'corporate housing expense' for visiting contractors. The champagne dress she wore to the gala? Expensed as 'client entertainment.'”
I looked at the numbers. Over the course of two years, Daniel had siphoned nearly two hundred thousand dollars out of the company’s operational budget to buy Lauren expensive jewelry, designer clothes, and luxury vacations they claimed were "site scouting trips."
“He’s an absolute idiot,” Marcus laughed darkly, shaking his head. “He left a paper trail a mile long. Commingling corporate funds with personal expenses is a massive breach of fiduciary duty.”
“It’s not just a breach,” the accountant added quietly. “It’s corporate fraud. It carries federal prison time.”
I sat back in my chair, staring at the damning evidence. Daniel had risked our family’s entire livelihood, the company we built from a freezing garage, just to impress a woman fifteen years younger than him. He had stolen from his own daughter’s future.
“What do you want to do, Sarah?” Marcus asked, folding his hands on the desk. “We can take this to the district attorney today. He’ll be indicted by the end of the month.”
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I looked out the window at the Chicago skyline, thinking about the empire I had helped build. Sending him to prison would be satisfying, but it would drag the company through years of public scandals, lawsuits, and federal investigations. It would destroy the value of the business I wanted to leave to Ellie.
“No,” I said quietly, turning back to Marcus. “I don't want to destroy the company. I want to take it. Draft the termination papers. I’m going to the office.”
