CHAPTER 4 — PHASE ONE
Claire met Dana in the back corner of a twenty-four-hour diner outside Port Haven.
Dana had worked for Bennett Coastal Design for eleven years.
She had known Claire’s mother.
She had attended Claire’s wedding.
Now she sat beneath the harsh fluorescent lights with a laptop open between them and kept glancing toward the entrance.
“I copied these before Mason restricted the accounting server.”
Dana turned the screen.
Seventeen payments had been made over fourteen months.
The first sixteen were exactly $2,500.
The final payment was $40,000.
Every transfer had gone to a company called Hollow Shore Consulting.
Claire had never heard of it.
Dana opened the business registration.
The owner was Olivia Bennett.
“My sister owns a consulting company?”
“She registered it six weeks after your miscarriage.”
Claire stared at the date.
Six weeks after Mason and Olivia began their affair.
“What services did she provide?”
“According to the invoices, project management.”
“Olivia managed a cosmetics counter before she lost her job.”
“I know.”
Dana opened one of the invoices.
It contained Claire’s digital approval.
Another had been approved using biometric authorization from Claire’s phone.
“That’s impossible.”
“Did Mason ever have access to your phone while you were asleep?”
“He knew the passcode.”
“Biometric approvals require a fingerprint or facial scan.”
Claire remembered waking several times to Mason holding her phone near her face.
He always claimed he was checking the time.
At least, that was what he had told her.
Dana clicked on the final transfer.
The forty thousand dollars had been categorized as an acquisition expense.
The attached reference was listed as:
Phase One — Domestic Positioning.
“What does domestic positioning mean?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Could it be related to the divorce?”
Dana closed the laptop halfway.
“There’s more.”
She pulled a printed document from her bag.
Three months earlier, Bennett Coastal Design had secured a line of credit worth $1.2 million.
The collateral was a piece of waterfront property Claire had inherited from her mother.
North Harbor Point.
It was the most valuable undeveloped land on the Port Haven coast.
Claire had refused four separate offers to sell it.
Her mother had wanted it preserved.
“I never approved this loan.”
“Your signature is on every page.”
“It’s forged.”
“The bank notarized it.”
Claire studied the final page.
The notary’s name was Elaine Mercer.
“Can we call her?”
Dana’s expression darkened.
“Elaine Mercer died six months ago.”
The document had been notarized eight weeks earlier.
Claire leaned back.
“Someone used the identity of a dead woman.”
Dana nodded.
“The loan money was deposited into Bennett Coastal Design.”
“Where is it now?”
“Seven hundred thousand remains.”
“And the rest?”
“Transferred to three separate holding companies.”
“Who owns them?”
“That’s the problem. They’re registered through nominee directors.”
Claire looked at the list of company names.
One caught her attention.
Gray Tide Development.
Mason had mentioned Gray Tide during dinner three months earlier.
He said they were interested in purchasing North Harbor Point.
Claire had told him the land was not for sale.
The next morning, he had apologized for bringing business into their bedroom.
Apparently, he had never stopped bringing business into their marriage.
Dana reached for Claire’s hand.
“You need a lawyer who doesn’t know Mason.”
“My attorney won’t return my calls.”
“He was in your office this morning.”
Claire froze.
“Daniel was there?”
Dana nodded.
“He arrived with Mason.”
Daniel Cross had represented Claire’s family for twelve years.
He had handled her mother’s estate.
He had prepared Claire and Mason’s prenuptial agreement.
Claire took out her phone and searched for Daniel’s name.
His photograph appeared on the website of Cross, Wade and Mercer.
His biography listed several major corporate clients.
One of them was Gray Tide Development.
Claire felt the final piece slide into place.
Her attorney was not ignoring her.
He was working against her.
A waitress approached with coffee.
Claire waited until she walked away.
“What happens if they default on the loan?” Claire asked.
Dana looked at the screen.
“The bank takes North Harbor Point.”
“And if Gray Tide purchases the debt?”
“They take it instead.”
The affair had not simply been a betrayal.
It had created chaos at the exact moment Mason needed Claire distracted.
The custody petition made her look unstable.
The business resolution removed her authority.
The asset freeze prevented her from moving money.
And the forged loan placed her most valuable property within reach of Mason’s business partners.
Claire stared at the phrase on the transfer.
Domestic Positioning.
The affair was not separate from the plan.
It was part of it.
Her phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent her a photograph.
It showed Mason and Olivia sitting inside a restaurant six months earlier.
Daniel Cross sat across from them.
May you like
Beneath the image was a message.
Ask what happened in Room 614.
