Chapter 4 - The Audit Begins
Forty-eight hours after Christmas, the storm truly broke.
I was sitting at my home desk working on my freelance graphic design projects when my phone alerted me to a breaking news notification from the Nashville Business Journal.
“Federal Agents Execute Search Warrant at Ashford Development Headquarters.”
My heart hammered against my ribs as I clicked the article.
The report stated that investigators from the Department of Justice, accompanied by federal bank examiners, had entered the downtown skyscraper owned by my family at six o'clock that morning. They had seized servers, hard drives, financial ledgers, and construction records spanning the last five years.
The main focus of the raid? The multi-million-dollar municipal transit project that Brent was personally managing.
My phone started ringing immediately. It was my mother.
This time, her voice wasn't filled with arrogant authority. It was trembling with sheer, unadulterated panic.
“Emily!” she cried into the receiver. “Emily, you have to help us! The FBI is at your brother’s office! They’re taking everything! They’ve frozen the corporate accounts!”
I leaned back in my chair, taking a slow, steady breath. “Why are you calling me, Mom?”
“Because your husband did this!” she shrieked, her voice cracking into high-pitched hysteria. “Brent said Nathan threatened him! Nathan must have lied to his military friends to destroy your brother out of spite!”
“Nathan didn't lie about anything, Mom,” I said, my voice steady and cold. “If the FBI is seizing Brent’s servers, it’s because Brent was stealing money and building dangerous infrastructure.”
“He is your brother!” she screamed. “Blood comes first, Emily! How can you stand by that man while he destroys your own blood?!”
“Blood stood by and cheered while my son was hit across the face,” I replied, the words cutting through the phone like glass. “You chose Brent on Christmas night. Now you get to live with his choices.”
I hung up the phone before she could say another word.
Downstairs, Nathan came in through the garage door, dressed in his full Army OCP uniform. He looked sharp, formidable, and completely in control.
“The audit team just confirmed the initial findings,” Nathan said, walking over to pour himself a cup of black coffee. “It’s worse than we thought, Em.”
I looked at him. “How much worse?”
“Brent wasn't just skimming profits,” Nathan revealed, sitting down beside me. “He was using sub-standard, non-certified structural steel on the foundation pillars of the transit hub. He paid off a corrupt city building inspector fifty thousand dollars to forge the safety compliance certificates.”
I gasped, covering my mouth. “People could have died, Nathan! If that building had been completed...”
“It would have collapsed within two years,” Nathan said grimly. “He put thousands of lives at risk to pad his personal bank account by three million dollars. The Department of Transportation has suspended the contract, and the city is preparing to sue Ashford Development for breach of contract and fraud.”
Just then, my laptop screen flashed with a new email.
It was an emergency summons from my family’s estate attorney, Arthur Vance.
“Emergency Family Trust Meeting required today at 4:00 PM. All beneficiaries must attend.”
May you like
I looked at Nathan. “They want a trust meeting.”
Nathan picked up his coffee cup and took a slow sip. “Then let’s go. It’s time to finalize the accounting.”
