Chapter 6 - The Person Margaret Expected to Defend Her
Margaret expected Martin Hale to side with her.
Instead, the accountant asked her to wait.
They met him that afternoon in his office in Leesburg.
Martin had printed a timeline of Bellamy Holdings’ cash position, the loan closing, and the $920,000 transfer.
He slid it across the conference table.
“I need you to understand something before you decide Lucian did all of this for himself.”
Dominic leaned back.
“Did he?”
“No.”
Margaret looked disappointed rather than relieved.
Martin tapped the first quarter figures.
“Bellamy was overextended. Lucian caused some of that. He expanded too fast.”
“Some?”
“He also inherited commitments your husband made.”
Margaret’s attention sharpened.
“What commitments?”
Martin hesitated.
“That's what I think the payment relates to.”
“You think?”
“I never received the settlement agreement.”
Dominic asked who had.
“Lucian. Valeria. Transaction counsel.”
“Who got the money?”
“An escrow account administered by Carter, Webb & Sloan.”
The name meant something to Margaret.
Dominic saw it immediately.
“Mom?”
She looked toward the window.
“That was Charles’s personal law firm.”
Dominic’s father had been dead for four years.
Martin explained that the $920,000 appeared to satisfy an obligation originating before Charles Bellamy’s death.
“Why didn't you tell me this yesterday?”
“Because I wanted to verify the date.”
He turned the timeline toward them.
The obligation appeared in Bellamy’s internal books three days after Charles died.
Lucian had not created it.
He had inherited it.
Dominic felt some of his certainty slipping.
“What did my father owe?”
Martin shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Margaret did not speak during the drive home.
At a traffic light outside Middleburg, Dominic finally asked what she was thinking.
“That your father kept things from me.”
“That isn't exactly new.”
“No.”
She gave him a tired look.
“But I always told myself they were business things.”
Dominic understood the distinction.
Charles Bellamy had been secretive, proud, and accustomed to solving problems before anyone knew they existed.
Margaret had accepted that because the bills were paid, the employees stayed employed, and the estate survived one recession after another.
Dominic had hated it.
That was one reason he left.
Now Lucian appeared to have copied the same behavior almost perfectly.
At Margaret’s house, they found a FedEx envelope leaning against the front door.
It was addressed to her.
The return label belonged to Carter, Webb & Sloan.
Inside was a short letter acknowledging her request for records connected to Charles Bellamy’s estate.
Margaret had made the request two days before the confrontation.
She hadn't told Dominic.
Attached was a list of archived files.
One description stood out.
“Private Repurchase Agreement — C. Bellamy / J. Mercer.”
Dominic read the name twice.
James Mercer had not been an employee.
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He had been his father’s closest friend.
And Dominic had not heard anyone in the Bellamy family mention him in almost fifteen years.
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