Harold's Testimony
Chapter 10 - Harold's Testimony
The forensic audit into Preston's division concluded three weeks later, confirming Corinne's initial suspicions with considerably more damning detail, nearly two point eight million dollars in inflated vendor contracts routed to shell companies with direct ties back to Preston's own personal accounts.
Harold Pruitt, informed of the situation given his decades of institutional knowledge about the estate's financial history, provided Corinne's investigation with additional context that considerably strengthened the case against Preston.
"I noticed irregularities in that division's spending nearly two years ago," Harold admitted, during a formal interview with Corinne's investigative team. "I raised it quietly with Richard at the time. He told me to let it go, that family matters were handled within the family, not through formal channels that might embarrass anyone."
"Your father knew," Julian said slowly, when Corinne relayed this detail to him. "About Preston's theft. And he did nothing."
"It appears that way," Corinne confirmed. "I believe your father's own history of managing inconvenient truths quietly extended considerably beyond his personal life into how he ran the business itself."
Julian felt a fresh wave of grief for a father he was understanding, with each passing week, to have been considerably more compromised than the composed, respected patriarch he'd grown up believing him to be.
The board convened an emergency session once the audit's findings became formal, Julian presenting the evidence directly, considerably more prepared for the confrontation than Preston had anticipated.
"These numbers are being taken entirely out of context," Preston said, his composure cracking visibly under the weight of documentation he clearly hadn't expected to face this directly. "Every business incurs vendor relationships that appear unusual on paper."
"Two point eight million dollars routed to companies registered under your own relatives' names isn't unusual vendor relationships, Preston," Julian said. "It's theft, sustained and deliberate, over at least three years."
The board voted to suspend Preston's operational authority immediately, pending formal legal proceedings, a vote that passed with considerably less resistance than Julian had anticipated, several board members privately admitting they'd harbored their own quiet suspicions for years without ever finding sufficient courage to raise them directly.
Preston, cornered and desperate, made one final attempt at leverage during a private meeting with Julian following the board's decision.
"I know things about this family," he said, voice low and threatening. "Things beyond just your mother's story. Things that could hurt considerably more people than just me, if they became public."
May you like
"Then let them become public," Julian said, unmoved. "I'm done letting this family's secrets be used as leverage against anyone, including myself. Whatever you think you know, say it plainly, or accept the consequences of what you've actually done."
Preston had no response to that, his careful, calculating composure finally, completely collapsed in the face of a cousin no longer willing to trade truth for convenient silence.
