Chapter 3 - The Blackmailer
I did not sleep at all that night.
By dawn, I had printed every single document from the flash drive.
I laid the papers out across my dining room table like a massive puzzle.
Daniel had been embezzling money from our grocery chain for the last five years.
He had stolen nearly nine hundred thousand dollars, disguising the transfers as vendor payments.
But the money was actually going to an offshore account controlled by Samuel Thorne.
Daniel had tried to kill the caretaker, almost killed me in the process, and had been paying for silence ever since.
My phone suddenly buzzed on the kitchen counter.
It was my father.
“Claire, are you safe?” Dad asked, his voice rough with exhaustion.
“I am fine, Dad,” I replied.
“Daniel locked me out of the main office this morning,” Dad confessed.
I gasped in shock.
Daniel was the president, but Dad was still the majority shareholder and founder.
“He changed the security codes and hired private guards,” Dad explained.
“He claims I am mentally unfit to lead following your mother’s death.”
“He is trying to take total control of the bank accounts before we can expose him,” I said.
“I know,” Dad sighed heavily.
“What did you find on the drive, sweetheart?”
I hesitated, unsure if Dad knew about the blackmail.
“Dad, did you know Daniel started the fire at Briarwood?” I asked gently.
There was a long, painful silence on the other end of the line.
“Your mother suspected it, but we never had proof,” he whispered.
“He did it, Dad, and he has been stealing company funds to pay off the survivor,” I told him.
“I am going to the bank right now.”
“I have my emergency financial authorization documents.”
“I am going to freeze every single corporate account before Daniel can wire another dime.”
“Be careful, Claire,” Dad warned.
“Daniel is a desperate man, and desperate men are incredibly dangerous.”
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I hung up the phone and grabbed my car keys.
It was time to take my family’s legacy back.
