Chapter 2 - The Investor He Never Met
Garrett followed me into the hallway outside the ballroom.
“Evelyn, this is insane,” he said. “You are overreacting.”
Behind me, Daniel guided my mother toward a private hotel suite where a medic was waiting. I watched Rose disappear through the doors before turning back to Garrett.
“Overreacting?” I repeated.
“It was a misunderstanding.”
“You kicked a chair out from under my mother.”
“She was making a scene.”
“She was sitting down.”
Garrett ran a hand through his hair.
“You know how my mother gets.”
“Yes,” I said. “And I know how you get when you think no one can challenge you.”
He lowered his voice.
“Do not humiliate me in front of investors.”
I almost laughed.
“That is what you are worried about?”
“Lawson Technologies is in the middle of a critical funding cycle. You cannot freeze company investments because you are emotional.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Mrs. Lawson’s instructions were lawful and immediate,” he said. “Vance Global holds a forty-eight percent preferred investment position in Lawson Technologies.”
Garrett stared at him.
“That investor was private.”
“No,” I said. “It was anonymous.”
His eyes moved back to mine.
“You?”
“Yes.”
Three years earlier, Lawson Technologies had been six weeks from bankruptcy.
Garrett had come home late every night, exhausted and ashamed. He said he had built something important, but investors were pulling away. He claimed the company would survive if he could secure one major partner.
I believed in him.
I wanted to help without making him feel small.
So I invested through a Vance Global subsidiary under a confidential agreement. I did not tell him because I wanted him to feel proud when the company recovered.
That was my mistake.
I gave a proud man power without asking whether he deserved it.
He used that power to build a life where he could humiliate the people who loved me.
Garrett’s phone began ringing.
He looked at the screen.
Then his face changed.
His chief financial officer.
He answered.
“What?”
I could hear the panic in the voice on the other end.
Garrett listened for less than a minute before ending the call.
“They froze the operating accounts,” he said.
“Only the accounts funded through Vance Global,” Daniel corrected. “The board will review the remaining accounts, vendor agreements, and financial disclosures.”
Garrett stepped closer to me.
“You cannot do this.”
“I already did.”
“You will destroy my company.”
“No,” I said. “Your decisions may destroy your company. I am simply refusing to protect them.”
Claudia emerged from the ballroom with her coat thrown over one arm.
“What have you done?” she demanded.
Garrett turned toward her.
“Mom, go back inside.”
“No. I want to know why our cards are being declined.”
Daniel handed her an envelope.
Inside were records of every payment Vance Global had made for the past three years: mortgage installments, car leases, medical insurance premiums, travel expenses, and monthly transfers into Claudia’s personal account.
She stared at the pages.
“You paid for this?”
“No,” I said. “My family did.”
Claudia’s lips trembled.
“You let us believe Garrett was paying.”
“You never asked.”
Garrett looked furious.
“You planned this.”
“No. I planned to protect you. I just finally stopped.”
His phone rang again.
This time he did not answer.
Daniel looked at a message on his tablet.
“There is another issue,” he said.
“What?” I asked.
“An internal compliance review found several transfers from Lawson Technologies to an outside consulting company.”
Garrett went still.
Daniel continued.
“The company is registered to Claudia Lawson.”
Claudia stared at her son.
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” I said, watching Garrett’s face, “that he may have been using my investment money for something other than his company.”
And in that hotel hallway, while my mother received treatment for the injury Garrett caused, I realized the christening was only the beginning.
The money was missing.
May you like
The company was unstable.
And my husband had been hiding much more than his contempt for my family.
