Chapter 4 - The Shell Company in the Bahamas
“Claire...?” Andrew choked out.
His gaze flicked from my face to the little silver gift bag in my hand, then to Daniel standing beside me. His jaw slackened, and every single drop of blood drained from his features until he looked like carved chalk.
“Claire, baby... what are you doing here?” Andrew stammered, taking an involuntary step toward me. “I told you... I had an emergency meeting with suppliers—”
“You texted me at 7:14 p.m., Andrew,” I said. My voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the dining room like an icy scalpel. “You wished me a happy second anniversary while your lips were still wet from kissing another man’s wife.”
Gasps rippled across the surrounding tables.
Vanessa backed away against the mahogany pillar, hyperventilating. “Daniel, please! It’s not what it looks like! Andrew was helping me with a private investment consultation!”
Daniel pulled out his tablet, tapping the screen to bring up a cloud document.
“Is that what you call Solstice Horizon LLC, Vanessa?” Daniel asked, his tone deceptively mild. “The offshore shell entity registered in Nassau under both your maiden name and Andrew Bennett’s personal tax ID?”
He turned the screen toward Karen Vance and the police investigator.
“Over the last nine months,” Daniel explained with clinical precision, “Andrew approved forty-two falsified hardware delivery manifests to Vanessa’s shell company. The $3.8 million was split fifty-fifty: half wired into a private vault in Zurich, and half used to purchase the luxury lakefront condo on Lake Shore Drive where they spent their Tuesday afternoons.”
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Andrew slumped into his dining chair, burying his face in his trembling hands.
The web of lies he had spun for nearly a year had dissolved in less than ten minutes.
