Chapter 7 - Nadine Makes BailNadine’s first court appearance lasted less than fifteen minutes.
She faced charges connected to assault, unlawful restraint of a child, attempted financial fraud, and identity theft allegations still under investigation.
The prosecutor requested substantial bail.
The judge granted it.
Two hundred thousand dollars secured.
Beatrice assumed Nadine would remain in custody.
She was wrong.
By evening, the bond had been posted.
Detective Ruiz called Beatrice personally.
“Do you know who paid it?”
“No.”
“There are restrictions. She cannot contact Wesley, you, or your immediate family. She surrendered her passport and must wear electronic monitoring.”
“Who paid?”
Ruiz hesitated.
“Reed Heritage Development.”
Beatrice stopped breathing.
Daniel was in the kitchen.
She walked toward him with the phone still in her hand.
“Did you pay Nadine’s bond?”
His silence answered first.
Laura stood across the room.
“You did what?”
Daniel raised both hands.
“Listen.”
Beatrice slapped the countertop.
“No. You listen.”
Wesley was upstairs.
Beatrice lowered her voice.
“You used company money to release the woman who locked your son in a trunk?”
“I needed her out.”
Laura stared at him.
“Why?”
“So she would contact me.”
Beatrice could not believe what she was hearing.
Daniel explained that Nadine possessed documents capable of making him appear responsible for the second attempted transfer.
If she stayed in custody, her lawyer could use them strategically.
If she were released, Daniel believed she would try to negotiate.
“You paid two hundred thousand dollars so you could negotiate with her privately?”
“It’s a bond. The company gets it back if she appears.”
“That is what concerns you?”
“No!”
Daniel slammed his hand against the table.
Then immediately looked toward the ceiling.
He lowered his voice.
“I’m trying to protect all of us.”
Laura laughed bitterly.
“That’s what you called stealing from your mother.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I can get the evidence back.”
Beatrice finally understood his flaw with perfect clarity.
Daniel still believed he could fix everything alone.
He had learned nothing.
She called Martin Hale, the family attorney.
Within an hour, an emergency meeting of Reed Heritage Development’s board was scheduled.
By morning, Daniel’s authority to spend company funds without a second signature was suspended.
He was furious.
“You can’t do this.”
“I own forty-one percent of the voting shares,” Beatrice said.
“You’re destroying the company.”
“No. I’m preventing you from destroying what remains.”
Daniel followed her into the library.
“This affects hundreds of employees.”
“You should have thought of them before using stolen money to cover your mistakes.”
He stopped.
The words landed.
Beatrice continued.
“Charles told me not to save you again.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“So this is revenge?”
“No.”
She looked directly at him.
“This is consequence.”
That afternoon Nadine returned to a small rented apartment across town.
Her ankle monitor kept her from leaving the county.
A protective order kept her from approaching the mansion.
But neither order prevented her from speaking to Daniel’s attorney.
Or sending information through her own lawyer.
At 6:17 p.m., Martin received an envelope.
Inside were photocopies.
The first showed Daniel’s unauthorized $740,000 transfer.
The second showed Charles’s missing page eighteen.
The third showed the incorporation papers for Everwood Residential Services bearing Daniel’s electronic signature.
And the fourth was a handwritten note.
$500,000. Forty-eight hours. Then everything disappears.
Beatrice read it once.
Martin said, “She’s trying to extort the family.”
Daniel said, “Pay her.”
Laura turned toward him in disbelief.
Beatrice did not.
She had expected it.
“No.”
“Mom, if those documents go public—”
“They should.”
Daniel stared.
“The company will collapse.”
“Maybe.”
“People will lose jobs.”
“Then we will handle that honestly.”
He shook his head.
“You don’t understand what this will do.”
Beatrice stepped closer.
“What I understand is that yesterday my grandson was pounding on the inside of an SUV because everyone around him believed secrets could be managed.”
She handed the envelope back to Martin.
“We are done paying for silence.”
Later that night, Beatrice checked on Wesley.
He was awake.
“Grandma?”
“Yes?”
“Is Nadine coming back?”
“No.”
“Dad said she got out.”
Beatrice paused.
He had overheard.
“She cannot come here.”
“Because the police told her?”
“Yes.”
Wesley looked toward the window.
“What if she doesn’t listen?”
Beatrice sat beside him.
“Then this time she won’t find a family hiding what she did.”
Wesley nodded slowly.
Then he reached beneath his pillow.
“There’s something I forgot.”
He placed a folded piece of paper in Beatrice’s hand.
“I took it from Dad’s study because Nadine was looking at it.”
Beatrice unfolded it.
It was a bank deposit slip.
The account name was handwritten.
Everwood Residential Services.
Below it was a deposit.
$38,500.
The depositor’s name was not Daniel.
It was Nadine.
And the date was nearly a year before Daniel stole the $740,000.
May you like
Nadine’s scheme had begun long before Daniel believed he had recruited her.
She had been waiting for him to become vulnerable.
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