Chapter 5 - The Name on the Ledger
Frank didn't answer immediately.
Neither did Adrian.
Emily realized she had walked into another conversation she wasn't supposed to hear.
“I can leave.”
“No,” Frank said.
Adrian looked at him.
Frank continued.
“She already knows enough to be in danger if Vanessa believes she has seen something.”
Emily's stomach tightened.
“Danger?”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Not the kind you're imagining.”
“That's not reassuring.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
Frank opened a drawer and removed a thin ledger.
He placed it on the table.
“This is an account of money spent through family charitable events.”
Emily stared.
The amounts were enormous.
But something else caught her attention.
Several payments were made to vendors who had never supplied the events.
One company appeared three times.
Emily recognized the name.
She had seen it on the delivery receipt Vanessa had tried to make her sign.
“That company,” Emily said.
Adrian looked at the page.
“Yes.”
“They were supposed to deliver the ingredients.”
Frank nodded.
“They never did.”
Emily's pulse quickened.
“So someone paid them anyway.”
Adrian closed the ledger.
“That is what we need to understand.”
Frank looked toward the ballroom.
“And we need to understand who authorized it.”
Emily remembered Vanessa's words.
She also remembered the way Vanessa had looked when she realized Emily had refused to sign.
Then something else came back.
Vanessa had not been angry when Emily refused.
She had been afraid.
Emily slowly said:
“She didn't want me to sign that receipt because she needed someone else to make it look legitimate.”
Adrian stared at her.
For the first time that night, he wasn't looking at Emily like a woman he needed to protect.
May you like
He was looking at her like a witness.
And Emily suddenly understood why.
