Chapter 3 - The Audit Begins
By 8:00 AM on Monday morning, the fallout from the engagement party had officially escalated into an unstoppable crisis for Eleanor and Sienna Bennett.
I sat in the high-backed leather chair of my office at the Pentagon, reviewing the initial financial report compiled by the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID). Across from me sat Mason, wearing his immaculate dress green uniform, sipping black coffee.
"It's worse than we thought," Mason said, sliding a thick blue folder across the desk to me. "Your mother hasn't just been living beyond her means. She’s been committing active fraud using your father's legacy."
I opened the folder. Page after page of bank statements, tax returns, and offshore wire transfers were highlighted in red.
For the past five years, while I was deployed in dangerous combat zones overseas, Eleanor had been illegally redirecting survivor benefits intended for military orphan funds into private accounts. Worse, she had been using General Bennett's name to secure millions of dollars in fraudulent loans from private defense contractors, claiming she had political influence to secure government contracts for them.
And where did all that money go?
Directly into Sienna's failed business ventures—a boutique fashion line that went bankrupt in three months, a luxury rental villa in Miami that was seized for unpaid taxes, and endless lines of credit for designer clothes and high-stakes gambling in Las Vegas.
"They're broke," I said, leaning back in my chair. "They were relying on Dad's military compensation fund to pay off the loan sharks and defense contractors before the Federal audit went live."
"Exactly," Mason replied. "That's why she panicked at the party. She knew the contractors were giving her until the end of the month to repay a three-million-dollar loan. She thought she could slap you into compliance, take the money, and cover her tracks."
My desk phone rang sharp and loud. I picked it up.
"Lieutenant Colonel Bennett," I said.
"Olivia! Thank God!" My mother's hysterical voice echoed through the speaker. She was crying, her voice stripped of all its former elegance and pride. "Olivia, you have to stop these men! There are federal agents at the house! They're seizing the cars! They're putting yellow tape around the estate!"
I kept my voice dead flat. "They are serving a federal search warrant, Eleanor."
"I am your mother!" she shrieked. "How could you do this to me?! Sienna is having a nervous breakdown! The bank just frozen her credit cards at the mall! She was humiliated in front of her friends!"
"Sienna spent three hundred thousand dollars of stolen defense funds on jewelry last month," I answered coldly. "She should be worrying about prison, not her credit limit."
"It wasn't stolen! It was an investment!" Eleanor sobbed. "Olivia, please... call your fiancé. Tell his officers to back off! We can sit down and talk like a family. I'll apologize for hitting you! I was just stressed! You know how my temper gets!"
"You didn't hit me because you were stressed," I said quietly, leaning forward. "You hit me because you realized you couldn't control me anymore. You hit me because you thought I was still the quiet, scared little girl who would give up everything to earn your love."
"Olivia, please—"
"The audit will proceed," I interrupted. "And if CID finds evidence of treasonous financial transactions with foreign defense suppliers, you won't just lose the house, Eleanor. You'll be spending the rest of your life in a federal penitentiary."
I hung up the phone before she could answer.
Mason watched me, a soft, proud smile touching his lips. "How do you feel?"
"Light," I admitted, taking a deep breath. "For the first time in thirty years, I feel completely free."
"Good," Mason stood up, rounding the desk and pulling me into his arms. "Because the grand jury convenes on Thursday. And your sister just did something incredibly stupid."
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I looked up at him. "What did Sienna do?"
"She just called a national tabloid TV show," Mason said, his eyes darkening. "She's trying to sell a story claiming you used your military position to steal your mother's life savings."
