Preston's Numbers
Chapter 08 - Preston's Numbers
Corinne Ashby returned three days later with findings considerably more significant than the DNA results alone, her expression carefully professional though something urgent underlaid her careful presentation.
"I reviewed Preston's division's financials," she told Julian, spreading a set of printed documents across the desk between them. "There are irregularities I believe you need to understand before this merger vote proceeds any further."
Julian felt his stomach tighten. "What kind of irregularities."
"Preston has been routing considerable operational expenses through a vendor relationship that doesn't appear to reflect genuine services rendered," Corinne said. "The pattern suggests he's been personally profiting from inflated contracts over at least the past three years, funds that would come under considerably more rigorous scrutiny once the merger's new oversight structure takes effect."
"He's been stealing," Julian said slowly, the pieces finally arranging themselves into a shape that made his cousin's frantic concern about timing considerably more coherent.
"That's my professional assessment, yes," Corinne said. "I believe his urgency about closing the merger quickly, before any deeper financial review occurs, has very little to do with protecting the family's reputation regarding your mother, and considerably more to do with protecting himself from exactly the kind of scrutiny a scandal might invite."
Julian sat with this revelation, understanding now the full shape of his cousin's anxious visit days earlier, a man far more concerned with his own exposure than with any genuine family loyalty.
"I want a full audit," Julian said. "Immediately, and I want it conducted independently, outside anyone Preston has influence over within the company."
Corinne nodded. "I'll coordinate with an outside forensic accounting firm this week. I want to caution you, Julian, that confronting Preston directly before we have conclusive findings could give him time to obscure evidence or attempt to shift blame elsewhere."
"Then we move quietly," Julian said, "the same way I intend to keep handling my mother's situation, until we're both ready to bring everything into the light at once."
Natalie, present for the end of this conversation, reached for her husband's hand. "This has been an enormous amount for you to carry in a single week. Your mother, your father's old secrets, and now this."
"I know," Julian said, exhausted in a way that went considerably deeper than simple physical tiredness. "I keep thinking about how much this family has built on careful, managed silence. My father silencing my mother. Eleanor silencing her own guilt. Now apparently Preston silencing his own theft behind a rushed merger timeline."
"What do you want to do differently," Natalie asked, "once all of this finally settles."
May you like
Julian considered the question seriously, watching Miriam through the study's open door, sitting with his children in the garden, Sophie showing her grandmother a drawing with the specific, uncomplicated delight of a child who had simply gained a new person to love, no complicated family history required to understand why that mattered.
"I want this family's foundation built on truth going forward," Julian said. "Not managed carefully to protect whoever's most comfortable with the current story. I think that's the only way any of us actually heal from what's been buried here for so long."
