Chapter 12 - The Company Audit Finished What Laura Started
Once the personal truth surfaced, Daniel authorized a full independent audit of Bennett Vineyards.
It was one of the first decisions he made that cost him personally.
The audit found approximately $520,000 in questionable consulting and related expenses tied to Vanessa’s companies over four years.
Not all of it was stolen.
Some represented real marketing services.
Some represented legitimate event work.
But roughly $190,000 lacked adequate documentation or appeared personal.
There were also disclosure failures tied to related-party transactions.
Daniel had approved enough of them that he could not simply blame Vanessa.
That was important.
The board removed him temporarily from financial authorization while the cleanup happened.
He accepted it.
Vanessa’s consulting contracts were terminated.
Civil repayment demands followed.
The winery refinanced under stricter controls, including independent approval for related-party payments and quarterly reporting to outside directors.
Robert could have pushed to destroy the company.
He didn’t.
Laura had once cared about Bennett Vineyards too.
She wanted truth.
Not scorched earth.
So Robert backed the reforms and made one demand:
Every revised invoice connected to Vanessa had to be preserved alongside the original metadata history.
No more cleaned-up narrative.
No more pretending documents had always said what they said now.
Laura had been asking the right questions.
The audit finally answered them.
Too late for her.
May you like
Not too late for Noah.
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