Chapter 7 - MADISON’S VERSION
Madison sent me a six-page email.
Subject:
Since You Apparently Want the Truth
Usually a promising start.
According to Madison:
I had always looked down on her.
I used accounting to control the family.
I resented that the Harringtons came from money.
I was embarrassed by my own parents and projecting it onto her.
The wine was accidental.
The Cabo expenses were legitimate marketing.
The audit was retaliation.
My divorce threat was emotional abuse.
And apparently I had spent years “waiting for an excuse to punish everyone.”
I forwarded the email to my attorney.
Then did not respond.
Two days later, Madison called my office from an unknown number.
I answered.
“You’re not going to destroy my career.”
“I’m not trying to.”
“You froze my card.”
“Daniel did.”
“Because of you.”
“Because you charged twenty-eight thousand dollars of personal expenses to a company account.”
“It wasn’t personal.”
“Then document the business purpose.”
Silence.
She changed subjects.
“Mom says Elena exaggerated the wine thing.”
My body went cold.
“My mother did not exaggerate a liquid being poured onto her.”
“I said it slipped.”
“Did it?”
Another silence.
Then Madison said:
“She was being smug.”
There it was.
“What did my mother do?”
“She kept talking about how nice the restaurant was.”
I waited.
“That’s it?”
“You know how she says things.”
“No. Explain.”
“She acts grateful in a way that makes people feel guilty.”
I genuinely did not know what to say.
My mother had spent the evening complimenting the flowers.
The food.
Diane’s earrings.
The room.
She had been nervous and trying to be gracious.
Madison interpreted gratitude as judgment because somewhere inside her, she knew exactly how the family treated my parents.
I said:
“My mother’s politeness is not an attack on you.”
“You always take her side.”
“Yes.”
I paused.
“When you humiliate her, I do.”
Madison hung up.
Naomi’s audit finished five weeks later.
The findings were less cinematic than gossip would have preferred.
No giant embezzlement.
No secret offshore accounts.
Approximately $412,000 in executive and related-party expenses over three years required correction, reimbursement, reclassification, or stronger documentation.
Of that amount, roughly $167,000 appeared clearly personal or unsupported based on available records.
Madison’s share was significant.
Northstar’s invoices required renegotiation and partial repayment after duplicate and unsupported charges were identified.
Charles’s perks were curtailed.
The company had not collapsed because of theft.
It had been weakened by years of weak governance.
That was more believable.
And, in some ways, more dangerous.
Nobody thought they were stealing the company.
They thought the company belonged to them.
There is a difference.
May you like
A costly one.
---
