Chapter 9 - THE CONFLICT LEFT THE FAMILY
The audit widened.
North Sound had received hundreds of thousands from Whitmore-related entities.
Some payments corresponded to actual consulting work performed by outside vendors.
But the invoices had been routed through Evan’s company and marked up.
Other charges appeared unsupported.
The company’s outside counsel took over.
Richard temporarily stepped back from involvement in the review because payments had been approved under executives who reported to him.
Again, no dramatic collapse.
No agents bursting into offices.
Just accountants requesting records and executives suddenly using lawyers on every call.
The yacht incident spread too.
People at the marina had seen the Coast Guard transfer me.
Rumors reached financial reporters.
Richard’s public-relations team issued a statement about “a private family matter.”
That phrase made me laugh when Natalie read it aloud.
My private life had apparently belonged to them until privacy became useful.
Then my own credibility came under attack.
Anonymous messages reached my employer claiming I had fabricated the yacht incident to gain leverage in divorce proceedings.
A gossip account posted that I was “linked” to Adam Pierce.
Adam’s wife received messages.
That was when I called him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“My husband dragged you into this.”
“That isn’t yours to apologize for.”
His wife believed him.
Still, his professional reputation had been pulled into my marriage.
Another consequence.
My mother finally came to Milford.
She walked into Natalie’s kitchen carrying a casserole because mothers in our family believed food could survive any moral failure.
“I should have believed you,” she said.
I nodded.
She cried.
I did not reassure her immediately.
Then she asked, “Was Evan always like this?”
“No.”
That was the difficult truth.
He had not spent five years pretending every second.
He could be kind.
Funny.
Generous.
He could also become small and dishonest when he feared losing status.
Both men on the yacht were complicated enough to love and dangerous enough to leave.
The audit committee then requested my testimony about when I first noticed North Sound.
Dana prepared me carefully.
Dates only.
Facts only.
No guesses.
During preparation, she found a discrepancy.
One North Sound payment had been approved directly by Richard.
$180,000.
Two months before the yacht.
That threatened the cleaner explanation that Evan had manipulated an innocent father.
Richard might not have known the paternity report was false.
But he knew Evan’s private company was receiving questionable money.
He had something financial to protect too.
The two motives had overlapped.
Evan needed Richard emotionally enraged.
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Richard needed me financially quiet.
And the yacht had become the place where each man thought the other was helping for the same reason.
