Chapter 5 - What Victoria Had Signed
The first meaningful financial disclosure arrived ten days later.
Ryan provided brokerage statements, bank accounts, retirement balances, and a summary of his Mercer Biomedical ownership.
According to the disclosure, he owned only 7.5 percent of the company.
Erin stared at the number.
“That's wrong.”
Leah looked up.
“Why?”
“Three years ago he owned twenty-one percent.”
“Can you prove that?”
Erin could.
She had copies of old joint mortgage applications listing his holdings.
There had been no disclosed sale proceeds in their personal accounts.
Leah hired a forensic accountant, Denise Porter.
Denise was fifty-eight, direct, and unimpressed by family mythology.
“If he sold shares, money should go somewhere. If he gifted them, paperwork should exist. If they were redeemed, the company should reflect it.”
Two weeks later Ryan produced an explanation.
Victoria had purchased 13.5 percent of his shares nine months earlier.
The stated purchase price was $2.32 million.
Erin almost laughed when Denise showed her.
“Two-point-three-two.”
Denise nodded.
“Close to the amount in your audit file.”
“And Ryan never received it.”
“Not in any personal account we've identified.”
The buyer was not Victoria personally.
It was VM Strategic Holdings.
The same entity named in the audit.
Erin asked, “Where did VM get the money to buy his shares?”
Denise leaned back.
“That's exactly what the external auditors appear to be asking.”
Erin requested a meeting with Victoria.
Leah advised having counsel present.
Victoria refused.
Three days later she appeared unexpectedly at Megan's house.
“I bought Ryan's shares,” she said.
Erin kept the screen door closed.
“With what money?”
“Mine.”
“Then why did Mercer Biomedical send your company $2.4 million?”
Victoria's expression tightened.
“You don't understand corporate accounting.”
Erin almost admired the insult.
“I understand circular cash flow.”
Victoria looked past her toward Noah's play mat.
“I did what I did to protect that baby.”
Erin opened the door.
“From what?”
Victoria immediately seemed to regret the sentence.
“From instability.”
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Erin's face hardened.
“Try again.”
Victoria picked up her handbag.
“Ask Ryan.”
“I've been asking Ryan.”
Victoria walked toward her car.
Erin called after her.
“Did you buy his shares because he was already planning to divorce me?”
Victoria stopped.
She did not turn around.
“Your marriage was already failing.”
Then she left.
Erin stood on the porch with one fact finally clear.
Ryan's mother had known about the divorce before Erin did.
May you like
The $2.4 million was not merely a corporate mystery anymore.
It was part of something his family had prepared while Erin was still decorating Noah's nursery.
