Chapter 3 - The Audit
At nine o'clock the next morning, the air-conditioned lobby of First National Bank in downtown Charlotte was quiet and pristine.
Evelyn Gardner stepped through the glass doors, wearing a custom pastel pink suit, oversized Jackie O sunglasses, and holding a leather handbag that cost more than a mid-sized sedan. Behind her came Victoria, dressed in a sleek white dress, scrolling through her phone as she bit into an artisanal pastry.
"I told you, Mother, we need another ten thousand for the wedding flower arrangements," Victoria said loudly, not bothering to lower her voice. "Marcus says the orchids have to be imported from Holland. We can't have local flowers like commoners."
"Don't worry, darling," Evelyn replied smoothly, adjusting her diamond necklace. "Leo’s monthly transfer arrived yesterday. $8,000 clean. We’ll just transfer five thousand from the estate maintenance fund to your wedding account. Leo will never know."
"When is his contract up again?" Victoria asked, tapping her manicured nails on her screen.
"Two months," Evelyn chuckled softly. "By then, the sale of the house to Marcus’s firm will be finalized. We’ll have the $1.2 million in cash in our offshore account. When Leo comes home, we’ll just tell him that Elena ran off with a lover and sold the house behind our backs using a power of attorney. He’ll be too heartbroken to investigate."
"You're a genius, Mom," Victoria giggled, snapping a selfie in the polished marble reflection of the lobby pillar.
They walked toward the private wealth management wing, heading toward the glass-walled corner office of Arthur Pendelton—the bank’s senior vice president and my mother’s personal financial advisor for the last four years.
Evelyn didn't bother knocking. She pushed open the heavy glass door with a bright smile. "Arthur, sweetie! We need to make a quick wire transfer before our spa appointment—"
Evelyn froze.
The words died in her throat.
Sitting in the high-backed leather chair directly across from Arthur Pendelton’s desk was a man wearing a dark, tailored charcoal suit. His hair was cropped short, his skin bronzed by the desert sun, his posture erect and imposing.
On the mahogany desk between them sat four heavy black binders, two federal bank examiners, and Samuel Vance.
I slowly turned around in the leather chair, setting down my cup of black coffee.
"Hello, Mom," I said, my voice smooth as silk. "Hello, Victoria."
Victoria dropped her pastry onto the Persian rug. Her face went as white as her dress.
Evelyn gasped, clutching her leather handbag to her chest as if it could shield her from the phantom standing before her. She took two trembling steps backward, her eyes bulging in pure, unadulterated shock.
"L-Leo...?" Evelyn stammered, her voice cracking violently. "You... you're in Saudi Arabia! Your contract... you aren't supposed to be back until October!"
"My contract ended early," I said, standing up to my full six-foot-two height. I stepped around the desk, walking slowly toward them. "I wanted to surprise you. I thought I’d come home early to see my wife... my son... and my loving mother."
Evelyn swallowed hard, her mind visibly racing as she tried to reconstruct her web of lies on the fly. She forced a strained, terrified smile onto her face, stretching her arms out as if to hug me.
"Oh! My darling boy!" she cried out, her voice trembling with fake emotion. "You're home! Thank God! Oh, Leo, we’ve missed you so much! It’s been so terrible... so tragic..."
I didn't move. I stood like a stone wall, letting her hands hover inches from my chest. "Tragic? What's tragic, Mom?"
Evelyn pulled out a lace handkerchief, pressing it to her dry eyes. "It’s Elena, Leo! Oh, my poor sweet boy, you don't know! Three months ago, Elena... she lost her mind! She started drinking, taking drugs... she took Julian and ran away with some criminal from Atlanta! We tried to stop her, Leo! We begged her to stay, but she stole your savings and vanished!"
I stared at her.
The level of absolute, sociopathic performance was staggering. She didn't hesitate. She didn't flinch. She lied with the practiced ease of someone who had been doing it her entire life.
I looked over at Victoria. My younger sister was trembling, her eyes darting frantically toward the door.
"Is that true, Victoria?" I asked softly. "Did Elena run away?"
"Y-yes!" Victoria squeaked out, clutching her fiancé’s engagement ring on her finger. "She... she was terrible, Leo! She said she hated you! She said you were just a dirty laborer! Mom and I have been paying for private investigators to find Julian, but... but we couldn't find them!"
I slowly nodded my head.
"That's funny," I murmured, taking a step closer to Victoria. "Because last night, around nine o'clock, I found my wife and my son in the storage shed behind my garage."
The room went dead silent.
The air seemed to be sucked out of the office. Evelyn’s handkerchief dropped from her trembling fingers. Victoria let out a small, strangled gasp, clutching the edge of the doorframe to keep from collapsing.
"You..." Evelyn whispered, her face draining of every drop of color. "You... you were at the house last night?"
"I heard Julian crying, Mom," I said, my voice dropping into a register so dark that Arthur Pendelton, the banker behind the desk, shrank back into his chair. "I heard my six-year-old son ask his mother if Grandma was going to lock the door again. I saw my wife weighing eighty-five pounds, feeding our child moldy food while you were upstairs drinking two-hundred-dollar champagne with your high-society friends."
"Leo... listen to me..." Evelyn whimpered, backing toward the wall. "It... it isn't what it looks like! Elena was sick! She was violent! We locked her in there for her own safety—"
"SHUT UP!"
The roar erupted from my chest like an explosion, shaking the glass walls of the office.
Evelyn flinched, cowering against the wall.
"Mr. Pendelton," Samuel Vance spoke up calmly from the desk, tapping the black binders in front of him. "As the legal representative of Leo Gardner, I am executing an immediate freeze on all accounts associated with Evelyn Gardner Holdings LLC, as well as any sub-accounts linked to Victoria Gardner."
"You can't do that!" Victoria screamed, her panic finally boiling over. "That's my wedding money! My fiancé has catering deposits due today!"
"Actually, Miss Gardner, we can," Arthur Pendelton said nervously, sweating through his collar as he looked at the federal examiners sitting beside him. "Your brother has provided irrefutable proof that the $480,000 deposited into these accounts was intended for the maintenance of his immediate family—his wife and child. Furthermore, the federal examiners are currently reviewing evidence of forged signatures on property deeds."
"Forged signatures?!" Evelyn shrieked. "That’s ridiculous! Leo signed that deed over to me! He wanted me to have the house!"
"I was in Riyadh on October 14th of last year, Evelyn," I said, stepping right up to her face, looking down into her terrified eyes. "My passport, my flight records, and my military-grade clearance logs at the oil refinery prove I didn't set foot in North Carolina. The notary public, Richard Hayes, has already been subpoenaed by the State Attorney General’s office. He’s currently spilling his guts in exchange for a plea deal."
Victoria let out a loud, pathetic sob, dropping to her knees on the floor. "Leo... please! I'm your sister! Marcus will leave me if the wedding is canceled! His business will go bankrupt!"
I looked down at my sister with complete disgust.
"Marcus’s business is already bankrupt, Victoria," I said coldly. "Samuel filed a civil injunction thirty minutes ago freezing the transfer of the estate collateral. Marcus’s creditors have been notified that the property deed is under federal investigation for fraud. By noon today, every single loan Marcus took out using my house will be called in immediately."
"No..." Victoria sobbed, holding her head in her hands. "No, no, no!"
Evelyn tried one last desperate attempt. She grabbed the lapels of my jacket, her hands shaking, tears finally real as she realized her lavish world was crumbling around her ears.
"Leo... my sweet boy... I'm your mother!" she pleaded, her voice cracking. "I raised you! I gave you everything! You can't do this to us! What will people say?! What will the club say?!"
I slowly, deliberately took her wrists, removing her hands from my jacket.
"You aren't my mother anymore, Evelyn," I said, my eyes cold as ice. "My mother died the moment she locked my son in a shed."
I turned my back on them, walking toward the office door with Samuel beside me.
"Where are you going?!" Evelyn screamed after me, her voice shrill and hysterical as the bank security guards stepped into the hallway to block her exit. "LEO! YOU CAN'T LEAVE US LIKE THIS! LEO!"
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I didn't look back.
"Phase one is complete," Samuel whispered as we walked out into the bright sunshine of Charlotte. "Now, let's go meet Marcus Sterling."
