Chapter 6 - WHAT KNOWING COST THEM
By Monday, the Reeves family problem belonged to people who did not care that they were family.
The outside accountants requested bank correspondence.
The lender asked questions about related-party transactions.
Company counsel instructed Margaret not to contact finance employees about the review.
Cedar & Sage received payment for verified work already completed, but every future invoice required independent approval.
Carla missed a debt payment anyway.
She blamed Irene publicly enough that two Reeves Desert employees forwarded Irene screenshots.
She ruined my company because she hates this family.
Irene did not respond.
Austin did.
He sent a companywide directive warning employees against retaliation or discussion of the internal review.
Margaret called him within five minutes.
Irene learned about the argument afterward.
It was the first time Austin had ever hung up on his mother.
That should have made Irene feel safer.
Instead she kept thinking about Marcus’s unanswered email.
Austin visited Rachel’s house Tuesday evening carrying a bag from Irene’s favorite Mexican restaurant.
Rachel accepted the food and then announced she was going grocery shopping.
Irene suspected she drove three blocks and parked.
Austin sat across from Irene.
“Elaine put me under limited authority.”
Irene had expected it.
He still seemed wounded.
“I can manage operations,” he continued. “I can’t approve payments over fifty thousand. I can’t participate in anything involving Carla.”
“That makes sense.”
“My own board doesn’t trust me.”
Irene looked at him.
“Do you?”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Trust yourself.”
Austin leaned back.
For the first time, anger surfaced.
“I came home and found my mother hurting you. I stopped it. I gave the police the video. I defended your access to the records. What else do you want me to do?”
“Stop listing the things you did after it became impossible to ignore.”
His expression changed.
“Irene—”
“That’s the whole problem.”
She placed both hands around her glass.
“You act when the cost of doing nothing becomes higher than the cost of disappointing your family.”
Austin stood.
“That’s unfair.”
“Your mother attacked your pregnant wife over records created by a financial arrangement you approved.”
“I did not approve what she did to you.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“Then stop talking like I put the hammer in Carla’s hand.”
Irene flinched.
Austin saw it.
Regret came immediately.
He sat back down.
“I’m sorry.”
Irene looked toward the kitchen doorway.
“You need to leave.”
“Irene.”
“Please.”
He went.
That night she cried harder than she had at the hospital.
Not because she hated him.
Because she still loved him enough for every weakness to matter.
The following morning Elaine called.
“We found another approval.”
Irene sat on the edge of Rachel’s guest bed.
“Austin’s?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Eighty-five thousand.”
“When?”
“April.”
That was three months after the original loan.
Austin could not explain it as part of one hurried January decision.
Elaine continued.
“There’s a complication. The authorization came through his executive credentials from his office computer.”
Irene stared at the wall.
“Was he there?”
“We’re checking access records.”
“And if he was?”
Elaine did not soften it.
“Then your husband may know more than he has told either of us.”
A text appeared from Austin while Irene was still on the call.
Mom says Elaine is trying to turn you against me.
Irene read it twice.
May you like
Then deleted her half-written reply.
For the first time since the attack, she was no longer certain Margaret was the only person she needed distance from.
