Chapter 2 - THE DOCUMENT UNDER THE ENGAGEMENT PAPERS
Victor did not answer Ethan immediately.
He opened Mark’s leather folder.
Mark tried to grab it.
Victor stepped backward.
“Touch me again and this party ends with deputies, not champagne.”
Mark laughed, but it sounded thin.
“You don’t know what you’re looking at.”
Victor had financed hotel projects before Mark finished college.
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
The first documents looked ordinary.
A private investment subscription agreement for a $2.5 million investment into Arroyo Crest Opportunity Fund III, Mark’s real-estate fund.
Ethan already knew about that.
He had told me earlier he was considering investing in a Newport Beach hotel conversion as part of diversifying his trust assets before marriage.
Victor had reviewed the original proposal.
What Victor had not seen was the side letter attached behind it.
It authorized Mark to apply Ethan’s investment “toward existing bridge obligations and related project liabilities at the manager’s discretion.”
Victor read that line twice.
“Ethan, did you approve this?”
“No.”
Mark crossed his arms.
“It’s standard flexibility language.”
“No,” Victor said. “It’s permission to use new capital to cover old obligations.”
Ethan looked at Natalie.
“You told me the money was going into Newport.”
“That’s what Mark told me.”
I pulled out my phone.
“Do you want me to read your message about putting my account back before quarter close?”
Her face changed.
Mark moved toward me again.
Ethan stepped between us.
For the first time that night, he looked at the man he had admired for years without admiration.
“What account?”
I answered.
“My separate investment account.”
When my mother died eight years earlier, she left me approximately $1.9 million in securities and municipal bonds.
Mark managed our finances professionally. I had allowed him limited trading authority over that account after our marriage because he was an investment manager and I trusted him.
Three weeks earlier, I noticed the balance was almost $600,000 lower than expected.
Mark told me the statement reflected temporary tax positioning.
I believed him.
Now his own message said he needed Ethan’s money to “put Claire’s account back.”
Victor closed the folder.
“This engagement party is over.”
Natalie grabbed Ethan’s arm.
“Please.”
He pulled away.
“Did you know he took Claire’s money?”
“I didn’t know what account he meant.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Before she answered, Mark snatched a champagne glass from the table and threw it into the pool.
Guests turned.
Then he pointed at me.
“This is what she does. She gets jealous, invents some financial catastrophe, and destroys whatever room she walks into.”
I almost shouted.
That was what he wanted.
Instead I said, “Then let the records prove me wrong.”
Victor looked at me.
A small nod.
May you like
Mark saw it.
And realized the one person at the party who understood his paperwork had already chosen not to protect him.
