The Numbers Don't Add Up
Chapter 04 - The Numbers Don't Add Up
Grace Marsh arrived the following afternoon, sharp-eyed and businesslike, carrying a leather bag stuffed with legal pads and a laptop she set up at Daniel's dining table like she'd done this a hundred times before, because she likely had.
"Walk me through what you know so far," she said, once introductions were finished.
Daniel laid out the loan file, the vague payment explanations, the timeline that lined up suspiciously with Vivienne's sudden interest in a marriage alliance.
Grace listened without interrupting, occasionally jotting notes.
"I'll need full access to Bennett Manufacturing's actual accounting records, not just what's been reported to your loan department," she said finally. "Given the pattern you're describing, I suspect the loan file is only showing us the surface."
"How do we get that without alerting Vivienne," Sophie asked.
"Do you have any standing access to company records yourself," Grace asked her. "As an heir, even if you weren't actively involved in operations?"
Sophie considered.
"I have viewing access to certain shareholder documents," she said slowly. "My father set that up before he passed, actually. Vivienne's never been able to fully lock me out of it, though she's clearly hoped I'd never think to use it."
"That's exactly what we need," Grace said. "Let's start there."
It took most of the afternoon, Sophie navigating an old portal she hadn't logged into in years, Grace cross-referencing what came up against the loan file Daniel had provided.
By early evening, Grace sat back from her laptop, expression grim.
"There's a pattern here," she said. "Consistent transfers out of the company's operating accounts over the last several years, routed through what appears to be a series of shell vendor relationships. Payments for services that don't correspond to any actual work I can identify."
Sophie felt something cold settle into her stomach.
"How much," she asked.
"I'd need full forensic access to be precise," Grace said. "But based on what's visible here alone, conservatively, we're likely looking at several hundred thousand dollars over the past three years."
"That's not a company struggling with normal cash flow," Daniel said quietly. "That's a company being systematically drained."
Grace nodded.
"And the timing of the debt escalation with your firm," she added, looking at Daniel, "lines up almost perfectly with when these shell vendor payments increased significantly. I'd guess your aunt was using the loan itself, at least in part, to cover the gap these withdrawals were creating."
Sophie sat back, the full shape of it finally coming into focus.
"The marriage," she said slowly. "It wasn't about combining resources with Castellan. It was about erasing this debt through a merger before anyone looked closely enough to find what's actually been happening to the company's money."
"That would be my working theory," Grace said. "A merger completed quickly enough, with Castellan's firm absorbing certain liabilities as part of the deal, could potentially bury this pattern in the paperwork long enough that nobody ever traces it back cleanly."
*Sophie's stomach turned over completely.*
"She wasn't marrying me off to save the company," she said, voice hollow. "She was marrying me off to hide a crime."
Nobody in the room argued with that.
Daniel reached over, briefly, and put a steadying hand on her shoulder.
"We're going to need everything you can remember," Grace said gently. "Every name associated with these vendor relationships that sounds even vaguely familiar. Every strange conversation you can recall from the past few years that might connect to this."
Sophie nodded, something hardening in her chest where fear had been sitting just moments before.
"I want to help build this properly," she said. "Not just survive what she almost did to me. I want to understand exactly what she's been doing to my parents' company, and I want it to stop."
May you like
Grace looked at her for a moment, something like respect crossing her expression.
"That's exactly the attitude that gets these cases won," she said. "Let's get to work."
