Chương 2 - The Man She Thought She Knew
Claire followed Marcus into Aurelia.
Evan tried to stop her.
“Claire.”
She ignored him.
The dining room was luminous with amber light, dark walnut, white linen and crystal.
Staff members greeted Marcus as he passed.
Not theatrically.
Naturally.
“Evening, Mr. Reed.”
“Chef’s upstairs.”
“Your table is ready.”
Each greeting made Claire feel more foolish.
Marcus entered a private elevator near the wine room.
Claire caught the doors before they closed.
“Marcus.”
He looked at her hand.
Then at her.
“You’re going to hurt yourself doing that.”
She stepped inside.
The doors closed.
“What did you mean?”
“About what?”
“My family.”
“You know exactly what.”
“I don’t.”
Marcus studied her face.
Apparently he believed her.
That frightened Claire more.
“You really don’t know.”
“No.”
The elevator opened into a private dining room overlooking the city.
Three men and two women in business attire stood around a long table covered with financial packets.
One of them said, “Marcus, we thought—”
Marcus raised one hand.
“Give me five minutes.”
They withdrew.
Claire stared at the presentation screen.
REED HOSPITALITY GROUP — ACQUISITION REVIEW
Below it were photographs of eleven restaurants.
Aurelia was only one.
“You own all those?”
Marcus closed the door.
“Some wholly. Some with partners.”
“How?”
“That isn’t why you followed me.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“What happened six years ago?”
Marcus looked toward the window.
“The short version?”
“Yes.”
“Your uncle Gregory was stealing from Whitmore Hospitality.”
Claire almost laughed.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Then leave.”
She stopped.
Marcus continued.
“He created shell vendors, inflated renovation contracts and moved money through companies controlled by people connected to him.”
“My uncle went to prison for tax fraud.”
“He went to prison for part of what he did.”
Claire frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus walked to the table.
“He used your father’s signature authority. Your mother’s trust account. Your name on two subsidiaries.”
“My name?”
“Yes.”
“I never ran any subsidiary.”
“I know.”
Claire’s skin went cold.
“At the time, federal investigators didn’t.”
She stared.
Marcus continued.
“The documents made it look like four members of your family were participating.”
“My father told me Gregory acted alone.”
“Eventually investigators agreed.”
“Because of you?”
Marcus did not answer immediately.
“I found server logs showing Gregory created the vendor files. I found original contracts he had altered after your father signed them. I recovered emails proving your mother had never approved transfers attributed to her.”
Claire’s lips parted.
“And me?”
Marcus looked at her.
“You were listed as manager of a company that received three hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
“I’d never heard of it.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I was the one who proved that too.”
Claire sat down.
Her legs felt unstable again.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Ask your father.”
She looked up.
“You were poor.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“That part was true.”
“You asked me for money.”
“Yes.”
“You borrowed eight hundred dollars.”
“My mother needed dental surgery.”
Claire remembered him calling it “family stuff.”
She had assumed he had wasted his paycheck.
“You never told me.”
“You already thought asking was humiliating.”
Her face burned.
Marcus continued quietly.
“I wasn’t secretly rich when we dated, Claire.”
“Then this?”
“I built it.”
“How?”
“One restaurant at a time.”
She looked around.
“This place costs millions.”
“Now.”
“What does that mean?”
“Aurelia wasn’t Aurelia when I bought it.”
“What was it?”
“A bankrupt hotel dining room with a condemned kitchen.”
Claire stared.
Marcus’s eyes hardened slightly.
“Your father gave it to me.”
That made even less sense.
“What?”
“Not as a gift.”
“What then?”
“A settlement.”
“For saving him?”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice became cold.
“For making me disappear.”
The doors opened behind Claire.
Evan stood there.
“I think we should go.”
Marcus looked at him.
Evan tried to regain confidence.
“I apologize for the misunderstanding outside.”
“There was no misunderstanding.”
Evan’s face tightened.
Marcus turned to Claire.
“You want answers?”
“Yes.”
“Ask Richard Whitmore why he paid me with a failed restaurant and an NDA.”
Claire whispered, “An NDA?”
Marcus nodded.
“Then ask him why he let you believe I betrayed your family.”
Claire stared at him.
Marcus opened the door.
“That conversation belongs at your house.”
She left Aurelia without saying goodbye.
In the car Evan said:
“He could be lying.”
Claire looked out the window.
“He knew about Gregory.”
“That was public.”
“No.”
She turned to Evan.
“The part involving me wasn’t.”
When Claire reached her parents’ house, it was almost midnight.
Her father Richard opened the door wearing a robe.
“Claire?”
She walked past him.
Her mother Helen appeared from the hallway.
“What happened?”
Claire turned.
“Marcus Reed owns Aurelia.”
Both parents froze.
That was answer enough.
Claire looked at her father.
“He says Uncle Gregory nearly sent all of us to prison.”
Richard’s face went gray.
Helen whispered:
“Oh, God.”
Claire stared at them.
“You knew.”
May you like
Her father slowly closed the front door.
“Yes.”
