“Apparently someone needed to.”
His father’s gaze finally lifted from his plate.
Grant saw it and became sharper.
“You don’t know how executive expenses work.”
That sentence almost made Naomi laugh.
She covered it by lifting her water glass.
I opened the folder again.
“Then explain them.”
I placed copies of the hotel receipts beside the expense report.
“These dates match weekends you told me you were traveling for meetings.”
Grant didn’t touch them.
Sloane did.
She picked up one sheet, scanned it, and put it down as if the paper had become hot.
I added another set.
“And these are consulting invoices.”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“Sloane did legitimate consulting work.”
“Then this should be easy.”
I turned one invoice toward the board members.
“The consulting charges repeatedly appear alongside the same travel dates.
Company-paid rooms.
Company-paid transportation.
Company-paid purchases.”
Sloane leaned forward.
“Are you accusing me of something?”
“I’m showing invoices.”
“You’re trying to humiliate me.”
I looked at the place card she had changed.
For the first time that evening, she followed my eyes to it.
Her mouth closed.
Grant stepped between us verbally before she could say more.
“This is exactly why I didn’t want tonight turning ugly.
Clara is upset about the marriage, and she’s mixing personal feelings with company business.”
The second board member finally put down his wine list.
“Company funds are company business.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
The room had changed.
Ten minutes earlier, everyone had been watching me to see whether I would break.
Now they were watching Grant to see what he would say next.
He felt it.
I could tell because his voice became quieter.
“There are explanations for every one of those expenses.”
“Good,” I said.
“Then you’ll have no problem explaining them during a formal review.”
His mother whispered his name.
“Grant.”
He ignored her.
He was staring at the folder now.
He knew there was more inside.
He just didn’t know how much.
Months earlier, I had noticed a reference to voting shares buried in paperwork Grant had left among routine financial documents.
He had always assumed I signed whatever appeared in front of me.
For years, that assumption had been convenient for him.
This time, I read everything.
Then I began reading older documents too.
The more I read, the less our marriage looked like something that had suddenly fallen apart.
