Chapter 6 - Natalie's Confession
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Natalie Blake was the Chief Financial Officer of Lawson Technologies.
She was also Garrett’s former college girlfriend, a fact he had always brushed off as ancient history whenever she attended our dinners.
When Caroline spoke her name clearly into the microphone the band had abandoned, every single guest in the ballroom turned toward her.
Natalie gasped, dropping her crystal champagne glass. It shattered loudly against the marble.
Garrett panicked. He shoved past a security guard and rushed forward, his hands raised in a placating gesture.
“Evelyn, please, this isn’t what you think!” he pleaded.
I held up the forged loan agreement, my hands surprisingly steady.
“You used our ten-month-old son’s trust fund to send Natalie six hundred thousand dollars. What exactly am I supposed to think, Garrett?”
Natalie’s face hardened from shock into fury. She marched toward Garrett, her heels clicking aggressively on the floor.
“You told me that money came from a private, anonymous investor!” Natalie screamed at him.
Margaret grabbed Natalie’s arm, her perfectly manicured nails digging into the younger woman's flesh.
“Keep your mouth shut, you foolish girl,” Margaret hissed.
That was the absolute wrong thing to say.
Natalie yanked her arm away violently and opened her expensive designer purse.
“I am not going to federal prison for your sick family,” Natalie announced to the room.
She reached in and pulled out a small, encrypted flash drive, marching over to hand it directly to Caroline Shaw.
“It contains all the internal emails, the hidden bank transfers, and recorded phone calls,” Natalie declared rapidly. “I started making backup copies the moment I realized Garrett was lying to me about the company's valuation.”
The crowd gasped. Garrett had confidently promised Natalie a luxury penthouse in Manhattan and a massive fifty-percent ownership stake in Lawson Technologies immediately after our divorce was finalized.
Margaret had eagerly helped prepare the forged trust documents because she arrogantly believed I was too stupid and trusting to ever thoroughly examine Theo’s financial accounts.
But Natalie, being a CFO, had recently discovered a glaring discrepancy. Most of the borrowed trust money had been secretly redirected from her promised account directly into an offshore shell company entirely controlled by Margaret Lawson.
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“You were planning to blame the embezzlement entirely on me when the auditors came, weren't you?” Natalie whispered, glaring at Margaret with pure hatred.
Garrett stood frozen in the center of the room, completely unable to form a single word in his defense.
