Chapter 5 - THE OTHER WOMAN STARTED TALKINGBy Tuesday morning, the scandal had stopped being private.
Not publicly.
Not yet.
But inside Riverton, rumors spread faster than market alerts.
Employees knew Madison had been escorted out.
They knew Nathan hadn’t attended the 8:00 executive meeting.
They knew legal had restricted access to several corporate servers.
And they definitely knew something had happened between the new CEO, the COO, and his secretary.
What they didn’t know was that the FBI had been contacted before breakfast.
Mara had insisted.
Possible forged corporate documents.
Interstate financial transactions.
Unauthorized transfers.
Stolen trust papers.
Too many potential crimes for us to investigate alone.
Nathan arrived at 8:42.
His access badge didn’t work.
Security called me.
“He’s demanding to come upstairs.”
“Send him to conference room C.”
Mara, Howard, and outside counsel were already waiting when he entered.
He looked at me.
“What did you do?”
I gestured to the chair.
“Sit.”
“No.”
“Then stand.”
He turned to Mara.
“My badge is disabled.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Pending investigation, your systems access has been temporarily restricted.”
“What investigation?”
Mara slid a notice across the table.
Nathan read.
His face tightened.
“This is insane.”
“Is your signature on the Linden approvals?” Mara asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you disclose a personal relationship with the company’s owner?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the relationship began after the contract.”
“Do you have documentation showing the services provided?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“My computer.”
“We’ve imaged it.”
“Then you have your answer.”
Mara continued.
“Did you instruct Graham Vale to prepare transfer documents concerning Charles Hale’s shares?”
Nathan looked at me.
“You went through my email.”
“Company account,” Mara said. “Company device.”
“That was estate planning.”
“For whose estate?”
“Charles asked me to look into options.”
I almost admired the ease of the lie.
Dad had specifically refused.
Mara slid the alleged proxy amendment toward him.
“Did Charles Hale sign this?”
Nathan barely looked at it.
“Yes.”
I said, “No, he didn’t.”
He finally faced me.
“You weren’t there.”
“Neither were you, according to the notary.”
His expression shifted.
Tiny.
But enough.
“We spoke with Rebecca Sloan,” I said.
Nathan’s face lost color.
“You bribed her?”
He realized instantly what he had said.
Howard leaned back.
Mara didn’t blink.
“Why would you assume Ms. Sloan had been bribed?”
Nathan said nothing.
I felt something inside me go still.
He knew her name.
He knew exactly who she was.
Mara closed her folder.
“This meeting is concluded.”
Nathan stared.
“What?”
“You will remain on paid administrative leave until further notice.”
“You can’t suspend the COO.”
“The board can.”
He looked at Howard.
“You’re supporting this?”
Howard’s expression remained cold.
“I’m supporting an investigation.”
Nathan turned to me.
“This is your revenge.”
“No.”
“You find out about Madison and suddenly I’m some criminal?”
“I found the financial records before I found out about Madison.”
“You’ve wanted me out for years.”
That was so absurd I almost answered.
Then he said something that made everyone stop.
“You think your father is innocent?”
I looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan smiled.
For the first time since Monday, he appeared almost relaxed.
“Ask Charles where Riverton’s original capital came from.”
Howard stiffened.
“Nathan.”
“No.” Nathan pointed toward me. “She wants transparency? Give her transparency.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask your father about Northbridge Holdings.”
The name meant nothing to me.
Howard looked away.
That frightened me more than Nathan’s smile.
“What is Northbridge?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at Howard.
“You know.”
He rubbed his jaw.
“Your father should tell you.”
Nathan laughed.
“There you go. Saint Charles has secrets too.”
He headed toward the door.
I stopped him.
“You’re still suspended.”
He turned.
“You better hope those documents stay buried, Victoria.”
“What documents?”
His smile disappeared.
“The ones your father built everything on.”
Then security escorted him out.
I immediately called Dad.
He refused to discuss Northbridge over the phone.
That gave me an answer of its own.
Before I could leave, Priya entered.
“Madison’s downstairs.”
“She’s suspended.”
“She says she wants to speak with you.”
“About what?”
“She won’t tell me.”
I should have sent her away.
Instead, twenty minutes later, Madison sat opposite me again.
She looked entirely different.
No silk blouse.
No flawless corporate armor.
Jeans.
Sweater.
Hair tied back.
No watch.
She placed her phone on my desk.
“I recorded Nathan.”
I stared at it.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Why?”
“Because you were right.”
She swallowed.
“He lied.”
I said nothing.
Madison looked down.
“For months, he told me your marriage was over. Separate bedrooms. Separate lives. He said he stayed because your father controlled his career.”
Not true.
Nathan and I had slept in the same bed until Sunday night.
“He told me you had agreed to divorce after the CEO announcement.”
“Also false.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“I asked him last night when he was filing.”
Her eyes glistened, but she forced the emotion down.
“He told me I was being emotional.”
That sounded like Nathan.
“I asked about Linden.”
“What did he say?”
“That I should destroy my company records.”
My attention sharpened.
“He told you that?”
“I recorded it.”
She unlocked her phone.
The recording began.
Nathan’s voice.
Delete the invoices.
Madison:
Why?
Nathan:
Because they’re going to twist everything.
Twist what? You said it was legitimate.
It is.
Then why delete it?
A pause.
Then Nathan again.
Because Victoria is vindictive.
I almost laughed.
The recording continued.
Madison asked about my father’s proxy documents.
Nathan became angry.
Then:
You weren’t supposed to know about that.
Madison’s recorded voice:
I drove you there.
Nathan:
And that was your entire job.
You told me Charles had agreed.
He was supposed to.
Then the line that mattered:
Once I controlled the shares, none of this mattered.
The recording ended.
I stared at Madison.
“Why are you giving me this?”
Her jaw trembled.
“Because he used me.”
I didn’t answer.
She continued.
“And because I did things I’m ashamed of.”
“Like Monday?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you pour the drink on me?”
She looked away.
“Nathan showed me your photograph Sunday night.”
My pulse kicked.
“He knew you were coming?”
“Yes.”
That contradicted his reaction in the lobby.
“Why?”
“He said you might show up and make a scene after losing the CEO vote.”
I stared at her.
“He told you I lost?”
“Yes.”
“He said the board had picked him.”
“And he wanted you to stop me?”
“He said security shouldn’t let you upstairs.”
“So you knew exactly who I was.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes.”
The humiliation hadn’t been random.
Nathan had arranged it.
Maybe not the drink.
But the confrontation.
My own husband had prepared his mistress to treat me like an intruder at my family’s company.
“Anything else?”
Madison hesitated.
Then removed a flash drive from her bag.
“I kept backups of everything I did for him.”
“Why?”
“Because my mother taught me never to trust a man who asks you to keep secrets.”
I almost said her mother should have taught her not to sleep with married ones.
I didn’t.
“What’s on it?”
“Emails. Invoices. Travel records.”
She paused.
“And Northbridge.”
I looked at her.
“What about Northbridge?”
“Nathan had me research it six months ago.”
“Why?”
“He said it was leverage.”
“Against whom?”
She met my eyes.
“Your father.”
I inserted the drive into an isolated laptop legal had provided.
Hundreds of files appeared.
At the top sat a folder.
NORTHBRIDGE — C. HALE
Inside were scanned banking records dating back thirty-two years.
Riverton’s founding year.
I opened the first.
A transfer.
$2.4 million.
From Northbridge Holdings.
To Charles Hale.
My father had always told me he started Riverton with a $300,000 loan and personal savings.
This was over two million dollars.
The next page contained a shareholder agreement.
Northbridge Holdings had apparently received a secret forty-percent beneficial interest in the original company.
My stomach tightened.
“Where did Nathan get these?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who owns Northbridge?”
Madison shook her head.
“That’s the part he couldn’t find.”
I opened another file.
A handwritten note had been scanned.
One sentence.
Charles — when the time comes, my daughter gets what is hers.
Below it was a signature.
Richard Cole.
I stared at the name.
Cole.
Nathan’s surname.
May you like
My husband’s late father.
And suddenly I understood why Nathan believed Riverton belonged to him.
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