Chapter 4 - The Company Gavin Thought Was His
Nathan did not answer again.
I called three times.
Straight to voicemail.
Maya was already gathering her things.
“I'm going to Prescott.”
“So am I.”
“No,” Samuel said.
I looked at him.
“We're finished with that word.”
“Victoria—”
“My husband may have spent years stealing from a company my father financed. A former controller disappeared after discovering it. Nathan has evidence addressed to me, and now somebody has walked into his office.”
I picked up my handbag.
“I'm going.”
Prescott Strategic Holdings occupied seventeen floors of a glass tower downtown.
I had attended openings there.
Christmas parties.
Board dinners.
I had stood beside Gavin when the company's name was installed in the lobby.
He had squeezed my hand and whispered, “We did it.”
I wondered now who he meant by we.
The receptionist looked startled when I arrived.
“Mrs. Prescott.”
“I need Nathan Cole.”
“Mr. Cole is unavailable.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
Maya approached behind me.
The receptionist glanced at her.
“Is Mr. Prescott expecting you?”
“No.”
That made her nervous.
“Then I should call—”
“Please do.”
She hesitated.
I smiled.
“Tell my husband his wife is downstairs.”
She picked up the phone.
Before she could dial, the elevator doors opened.
Nathan stepped out.
He was pale.
But alive.
Relief hit me so hard I nearly swayed.
He walked directly toward me.
“We need somewhere private.”
Maya pointed toward a café across the lobby.
Nathan shook his head.
“Not here.”
We went outside.
Three blocks away, inside Samuel's car, Nathan removed a flash drive from his sock.
Maya stared at him.
“Your sock?”
“I panicked.”
For the first time that day, we all laughed.
It lasted three seconds.
Then Nathan handed me the drive.
A strip of yellowed tape wrapped around it.
The handwriting wasn't his.
VICTORIA PRESCOTT.
“Eleanor wrote that?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me about her.”
Nathan looked out the window.
“She was brilliant. Difficult. Exact. Gavin hated that she wouldn't approve expenses without documentation.”
“Meridian?”
“That was one.”
“What happened?”
“Eleanor came to me one morning and asked whether internal audit could investigate executive transfers without notifying Gavin.”
“And?”
“I told her technically yes, practically no.”
“Why?”
“Gavin received alerts on anything involving his executive accounts.”
My father had built alerts.
Gavin had built alerts.
Men who didn't trust each other had apparently spent years constructing invisible tripwires around me.
“Eleanor gave me the drive,” Nathan said. “She told me that if anything happened, I should get it to Henry Caldwell.”
“But Dad was dead.”
Nathan nodded.
“I told her.”
“What did she say?”
“She looked terrified.”
His eyes met mine.
“She said, ‘Then give it to his daughter when she finally realizes who she married.’”
The words landed hard.
Maya inserted the drive into an isolated laptop.
It contained hundreds of files.
Invoices.
Wire transfers.
Internal emails.
Scanned signatures.
One folder was labeled:
PROJECT PHOENIX.
Maya opened it.
The first document was a restructuring plan.
Prescott Strategic Holdings would sell several profitable divisions to a private acquisition company.
The acquisition company was hidden behind layers of LLCs.
Maya traced them.
Then stopped.
“Oh.”
“What?”
She turned the screen.
Ultimate beneficial owner:
GAVIN PRESCOTT.
Samuel leaned closer.
“He's selling company assets to himself.”
“At below-market prices,” Maya said.
“How far below?”
“Some at thirty cents on the dollar.”
Nathan cursed.
I stared at the document.
“He's hollowing out Prescott.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Maya opened another file.
“Because he doesn't plan to remain at Prescott.”
There was a timeline.
Asset transfers.
Executive departures.
Client migrations.
Then a planned resignation.
Gavin intended to strip valuable assets from the company and move them into a private structure he controlled.
Leaving shareholders, employees, and creditors with what remained.
“When?” I asked.
Nathan read the date.
“Six weeks.”
My heart sank.
Thirty employees on a video call suddenly seemed very small.
Thousands of people worked for Prescott.
Retirement accounts.
Families.
Careers.
Gavin wasn't simply stealing money.
He was preparing to destroy the company that had built his reputation.
“Can we stop him?”
Samuel nodded.
“With the conversion rights.”
Maya raised a hand.
“Wait.”
She opened another file.
A scanned authorization.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
I stared.
“I never signed that.”
Samuel read it.
It purported to waive Caldwell Legacy Partners' conversion rights.
Dated eight months after my father's death.
“Forged?” Nathan asked.
“Yes.”
I knew my signature.
That wasn't mine.
Maya zoomed in.
“It's good.”
“Not good enough.”
Samuel's expression became severe.
“If Gavin submitted this to lenders or investors, we're beyond internal misconduct.”
“Fraud,” I said.
“Yes.”
I thought of fourteen years.
Every morning.
Every vacation.
Every kiss.
All while this man apparently believed my name was another corporate asset he could use.
My phone rang.
Gavin.
This time I answered.
“Where are you?”
“No hello?”
“Victoria.”
“I'm busy.”
“You went to my office.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To see whether you were sitting on anyone else's lap.”
Nathan almost choked.
Gavin lowered his voice.
“This isn't funny.”
“No. It isn't.”
“Come home.”
“No.”
“We need to discuss your father.”
There it was.
I looked at Samuel.
“What about him?”
“I know you found something.”
“Do you?”
“Victoria, your father was not the man you think he was.”
“Interesting.”
“He manipulated you.”
“How?”
“He used you to control me.”
“Gavin, you've spent fourteen years telling me my father didn't believe in you. Maybe he simply knew you.”
Silence.
Then his voice changed.
Cold.
“Whatever you found belongs to Prescott.”
“No.”
“You don't understand those documents.”
“I understand my own signature.”
Silence again.
Longer.
“What signature?”
I smiled.
He knew.
“Come home, Gavin.”
“You just said—”
“I changed my mind.”
Samuel shook his head violently.
I ignored him.
“Eight o'clock.”
“Why?”
“Because you're right. We need to talk.”
I ended the call.
Samuel stared at me.
“Absolutely not.”
“I need him talking.”
“You need an attorney present.”
“I'll have three.”
Nathan frowned.
“Three?”
“You, Samuel, and Maya.”
“I'm an auditor.”
“Tonight you're furniture.”
At 7:55, we positioned recording equipment in my father's study.
North Carolina law permitted recording with one-party consent.
I would be that party.
At 8:03, Gavin entered the house.
He looked tired.
Controlled.
Dangerous only in the way powerful men became dangerous when they discovered control slipping away.
I sat at the dining table.
The anniversary dinner was still there.
Cold.
Untouched.
He looked at it.
“You left it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I lost my appetite.”
He sat opposite me.
“Where's the folder?”
I said nothing.
“Victoria.”
“What folder?”
His eyes hardened.
“Don't play games.”
“You haven't even apologized.”
“For Sophie?”
“For anything.”
He leaned forward.
“The affair is irrelevant.”
The words hung between us.
I almost admired the arrogance.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then tell me about Meridian.”
He froze.
“Who told you that name?”
“Tell me about Project Phoenix.”
His face emptied.
I had never seen Gavin genuinely afraid.
Now I had.
He stood.
“You have no idea what you're interfering with.”
“Sit down.”
“Where is the folder?”
“Sit down.”
He stared at me.
Then sat.
I slid the forged waiver across the table.
“Did you sign my name?”
“No.”
“Did Sophie?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I don't know.”
“Wrong answer.”
“Victoria, listen to me. Your father designed a structure that would eventually destroy this company.”
“Then why forge my signature?”
His mouth tightened.
“I didn't.”
“Why steal his briefcase?”
That hit him.
“How do you know about that?”
I didn't answer.
He stood again.
This time he walked toward the study.
I moved in front of him.
“Where are you going?”
“You've hidden something in there.”
“No.”
He reached for the study door.
Samuel, Maya, and Nathan were on the other side.
I couldn't let Gavin open it yet.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from Sophie.
Only six words.
Don't trust Nathan. He works for Gavin.
May you like
Behind the study door, something moved.
And Nathan quietly unlocked it from the inside.
