Chapter 6 - Javier Had Been Stealing for Months
Once I started digging, everything came apart faster than I expected.
The riverfront deal was only the beginning.
Our internal audit uncovered a pattern stretching back almost nine months: inflated contractor bills, duplicate vendor payments, fake consulting fees, and redirected deposits flowing through shell entities that all led, eventually, to Javier.
He hadn’t just been skimming.
He’d built a whole quiet system under me.
And he’d used my trust to do it.
What made it worse was how simple it had been.
When I traveled, he signed off on logistics. When I was focused on major negotiations, he handled secondary approvals. Whenever something minor looked off, he always had an explanation ready.
Timing issue.
Bank error.
Vendor confusion.
Refiled expense.
He never stole enough at once to make the ground shake.
He stole the kind of amounts busy men overlook until the pattern becomes visible.
And that afternoon in my backyard, he had been trying to remove the last bundle of papers that could connect him to the whole scheme.
My son saw him.
That’s why he panicked.
That’s why he put his hands on Leo.
And that’s why the rage I felt beside that broken grill didn’t fade after the adrenaline wore off.
It got colder.
Sharper.
May you like
More controlled.
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