Chapter 17 - The Auditor's Warning|
I stared at the photocopied ledger page for what felt like an absolute eternity. Fifty million dollars. When Daniel and Richard had desperately tried to frame me for the missing twenty-five million, the federal forensic accountants had scoured every single inch of the Bennett company’s financial history. They had eventually found Caroline’s irrevocable trust, but there had never been a single, fleeting mention of an additional fifty million dollars, nor any official record of a man named Elias Thorne.
My office phone rang loudly, entirely shattering the heavy, suffocating silence in the room. I jumped out of my skin, my hand instinctively covering the ledger page as if the unknown caller could somehow see through the clinic's walls.
"Hello?" I answered, my voice noticeably tighter and more anxious than I intended.
"Rachel Bennett," a smooth, chillingly calm male voice said on the other end of the secure line. "I assume you received my package this afternoon."
"Who is this?" I demanded, gripping the plastic receiver so tightly my knuckles turned white. "And what exactly is this forged document you sent me?"
"My name is Julian Vance," the mysterious man replied evenly. "I was an independent financial auditor hired quietly by your former father-in-law, Richard Bennett, many years ago. Before he went to federal prison. Before his entire, corrupt house of cards violently collapsed."
"Richard is locked in federal prison, and so is Daniel," I said firmly, refusing to let him sense my rapidly growing panic. "Whatever illegal business you had with them is completely over. It has absolutely nothing to do with me or this clinic."
"I truly wish that were true, Rachel," Julian said, his tone turning incredibly grave and urgent. "But the dangerous people Richard stole from don't care about the American prison system. They only care about recovering their money. The twenty-five million Caroline brilliantly hid for your children was clean corporate money. But Richard was secretly laundering incredibly dirty money for a very dangerous, very ruthless man. Elias Thorne."
"I don't know who that is, and I certainly don't have his money," I stated flatly, my heart hammering against my ribs.
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"I know you don't," Julian sighed heavily. "But Thorne thinks you do. He thinks Caroline hid it, and he firmly believes you found it when you financed the restructuring of your new clinic. I’m calling to warn you, Rachel. He is currently in Chicago, and he is actively looking for you. Meet me tomorrow at the diner on 4th and Elm at exactly noon. Come completely alone. I can help you survive this nightmare."
Before I could ask a single follow-up question, the secure line went dead, leaving me listening to a dial tone.
