Page 74 of Miss Treated

The vendor name in the system didn’t match the one printed on the bank’s copy of the check. Instead the hard check was made out to SA Associates. Now that I had the fraudulent vendor name, I was quickly able to identify twenty-two other checks. All of them were under the second signature limit of twenty-five thousand, so they’d only needed Sophia’s signature and not Gerard’s. Added up, it came to over a half million dollars.

The next step was to find out who owned the bank account where the check was deposited. It had to be Sophia. The profile fit. She never took a vacation, had been overly defensive about the audit, and she didn’t have a backup who could perform her duties. Additionally she had SQL access without a good reason.

Shit, shit, shit. I put my head in my hands. Having Dominic’s favorite aunt embezzling from his father’s company was the very worst-case scenario.

Two hours later, I picked up when Chance called me.

“Hi, Kelsey. What prompted your change of phone number? Joel didn’t contact you, did he?”

“No.” Nor did I dare mention how my ex had found me in New York. I didn’t need my brother Chance going to jail because he’d inflicted his personal style of justice on Joel. “I’m cutting ties with my narcissistic, self-centered mother once and for all.”

He let out a long breath. “This calls for champagne. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks. It feels good.”

“Dare I ask how Dad’s anniversary party went?”

I related what had happened and could sense my brother’s fury through the phone.

“I hope our father is cut off from having your phone number too. What a prick move to ask you to leave.”

“Come on, we both know it’s his secretary I’d have to cut off, not him. But yeah, same difference. I’m done. Done with all of them.” I didn’t care if I lost my inheritance as a result or not. I’d never cared about the money.

“Good for you, sis. You have always deserved better than the way Dad and your mom have treated you, and I’m happy to hear you have finally realized it.”

“I appreciate it.” I really did.

“I have the information you were looking for on Sand Dollar Realty.”

I swallowed hard, a pit in my stomach. “What did you find?”

“Frank Russo has a gambling problem. With over a million in debt, he’s steadily paying back a local loan shark, according to my sources. He put his business up as collateral.”

Now I had the why. “Thanks. This info is helpful to my case.” And detrimental to the future of my relationship.

“Tory says you’ve been putting in a lot of hours.”

“Keeping tabs on me?” I shouldn’t mind, but I hated the fact he felt he had to. Ever since my “incident,” both my brothers checked in regularly, and always with a note of worry in their voices. I hated I’d caused that.

“I keep tabs on everyone I love. What does this information provide, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Motivation for why the accounting director, Gerard’s sister-in-law, would be stealing.”

He let out a low whistle. “What will be his reaction?”

“He already suspected her. We needed the proof, a part of which I found this morning in a non-matching check. The why of it is what you just provided.”

“Sounds like it’s about to get messy.”

Yes, it was. The big question, of course, was what Gerard would do with the information.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Dominic

On Thursday night, I greeted Ava at my door, and my older brother Leonardo was right behind her. Although he wasn’t much of a hugger, I nabbed one anyhow and took great pleasure in his grunt of annoyance.

“You really need better security in your parking lot. Picked up this guy along the way,” Ava said affectionately.