Chapter 4 - The Question Dominic Should Have Asked Months Ago
Dominic spent that evening at Margaret’s house rather than the mansion.
He called Bellamy Estate Holdings’ outside accountant, Martin Hale, who had worked with the family for nearly twenty years.
Martin refused to discuss detailed company information until Dominic reminded him that Dominic was still a voting member and forwarded the relevant operating agreement provision.
Even then, Martin sounded uncomfortable.
“The company had a difficult first quarter.”
“How difficult?”
“A major distributor delayed payment.”
“That doesn't create a three-point-six-million-dollar hole.”
“No.”
“What did?”
Martin hesitated.
Dominic stood at Margaret’s kitchen counter staring through the window toward the dark outline of North Field.
“Martin.”
“Inventory.”
Dominic frowned.
Bellamy Cellars produced expensive wine, but it was not a national giant.
“What happened to the inventory?”
“It sold slower than projected after Lucian expanded production.”
“That still doesn't explain the loan.”
“It isn't one thing.”
There it was.
The phrase people used when they wanted to make a bad decision sound like weather.
Dominic asked for financial statements.
Martin sent the last three quarters.
Dominic had reviewed enough corporate deals in his own real-estate business to understand what he was seeing.
Revenue had not collapsed.
Cash had.
Bellamy had expanded the tasting pavilion, increased production, prepaid for barrels, and bought out two small vineyard leases almost simultaneously.
Then the distributor delayed nearly $900,000 in payments.
The company had become short of working capital.
Lucian had tried to grow through the problem.
Dominic rubbed his forehead.
“So the loan really was for the business.”
“Mostly.”
Dominic stopped.
“Mostly?”
Martin said he could explain the accounting entries but not Lucian’s reasoning.
Nine hundred and twenty thousand dollars had left the loan account the morning after closing.
It had not gone to payroll.
It had not gone to suppliers.
It had been transferred to a lawyer’s trust account.
“For what?”
“I wasn't given the underlying document.”
“Who authorized it?”
“Lucian.”
“And Valeria?”
“She prepared the transfer.”
Margaret had been listening from the table.
Dominic looked at her.
The simple explanation—that Lucian and Valeria had endangered her property to rescue the company—was already incomplete.
Dominic asked Martin one final question.
“Did you know North Field was collateral?”
“No.”
That answer came too quickly.
Dominic heard it.
Apparently Martin did too, because several seconds later he added, “I knew Lucian had additional collateral. I did not know the parcel.”
Margaret leaned toward the phone.
“Why didn't you ask?”
Martin didn’t answer immediately.
When he finally did, his voice had changed.
“Because four years ago, Margaret, you told me something very clearly.”
She frowned.
“You said if Dominic wanted nothing to do with Bellamy operations, I was not to drag him back into them every time Lucian made a decision you disliked.”
Dominic looked at his mother.
Margaret remembered.
He could see it.
She had not created the loan.
But she had helped create the silence around it.
Dominic had walked away.
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Margaret had respected that decision so fiercely that she had instructed other people to respect it too.
And Lucian had learned how much could happen before anyone called Dominic.
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