Chapter 5 - Bianca Wasn’t Just the MistressBianca retained her own lawyer.
That surprised Marcus.
It surprised Elena too.
White House Creative opened its records after the special committee subpoenaed transaction documents under Vale’s vendor contracts.
Bianca had earned legitimate fees.
Approximately $520,000 over eighteen months.
Independent consultants estimated the work might reasonably have cost $380,000 to $450,000.
High.
Not absurd.
The remaining payments were different.
$370,000 labeled:
procurement advances.
Bianca’s company purchased furniture, fixtures, artwork, and model-home inventory.
Then billed Vale marked-up amounts.
Again, not automatically improper.
Design procurement companies often made margin.
The problem was that Bianca never disclosed she owned forty percent of the vendor supplying White House Creative.
A separate company called Linden House Furnishings.
Bianca was effectively marking up Vale’s money twice.
When auditors traced the ownership, Bianca stopped pretending.
“I own forty percent.”
Elena sat across from her at Paige’s office.
“Marcus knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did procurement?”
“No.”
“Did the board?”
“No.”
Bianca crossed her arms.
“I created the vendor because Vale kept rejecting my sourcing budget.”
Elena almost laughed.
“So you charged the company more secretly.”
“I found inventory faster.”
“You also profited.”
“Of course I profited. It’s a business.”
The answer was so unapologetic that Elena almost respected it.
Almost.
“Did Marcus approve it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Bianca looked toward her attorney.
Then answered.
“He said once you were out of management, design would become an independent division.”
Elena felt her stomach tighten.
“Out how?”
Bianca’s expression shifted.
“He said you were leaving.”
“Because of the divorce?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you I was selling my shares?”
Bianca hesitated.
“Yes.”
Elena leaned back.
Marcus had told Bianca the ten-thousand-dollar separation package was part of a complete exit.
Bianca believed Elena would disappear from Vale.
No wonder she had laughed at the market.
“What percentage did he promise you?”
Bianca looked embarrassed for the first time.
“Twelve.”
“Twelve percent of Vale?”
“Of the new design and procurement company.”
That company did not yet exist.
Or so Bianca believed.
Nora found a draft operating agreement later that day.
Vantage Design Services LLC.
Marcus:
70 percent.
Bianca:
20 percent.
Management pool:
10 percent.
Not twelve.
Bianca read the page twice.
“He said I would get twelve percent of the whole platform.”
Paige asked:
“Did he define platform?”
Bianca said nothing.
Marcus had apparently been dishonest with everyone using different nouns.
But White House Creative was not the biggest surprise.
Bianca’s attorney gave the committee text messages voluntarily.
One from Marcus, seven months earlier:
Once E is on maternity leave, we clean the structure. She won’t have liquidity for the call anyway.
Elena felt her hands go cold.
Bianca looked at her.
“I thought he meant an investor capital call.”
“He did.”
Bianca swallowed.
“I didn’t know he was moving company money.”
Elena did not know whether she believed her.
Then Bianca produced another text:
Seventeen keeps us flexible until Q4.
Bianca had responded:
Don’t tell me bank stuff. I don’t want to be involved.
Marcus:
You’re not.
Elena stared at the word Seventeen.
Bianca had seen the number.
Not the mechanics.
That distinction mattered.
Bianca had participated in an undisclosed procurement conflict and an affair.
She had accepted Marcus’s promises about Elena disappearing.
But the evidence did not yet show she designed the cash scheme.
Then Thomas Kline finally disclosed Stonebridge’s beneficial owners.
Fifty-one percent belonged to him.
Twenty-nine percent belonged to a private investment fund.
Twenty percent belonged to MVA Holdings LLC.
Elena asked Nora:
“What is MVA?”
Nora looked grim.
“Marcus Vale Asset Holdings.”
Bianca’s eyes widened.
Elena turned toward her.
For once, Bianca looked exactly as betrayed as Elena had felt months earlier.
Marcus had not simply used company information to enrich a friend.
May you like
He personally owned a fifth of the vehicle buying Vale’s distressed vendor claims.
And he had never told either woman.
