Chapter 4 - CALL MY LAWYERMarcus drove toward Miami Beach in the company sports car.
He told himself Jonathan would calm down.
His father always made severe statements during arguments, then Eleanor softened him.
By morning, the allowance would arrive.
It always did.
At a traffic light, Marcus opened his banking application.
His main account contained less than nine hundred dollars.
He had expected the usual transfer.
Nothing appeared.
He called Eleanor.
She did not answer.
He tried again.
Voicemail.
Marcus gripped the steering wheel.
For the first time in years, his mother was not standing between him and consequences.
At the mansion, Jonathan studied the loan documents.
Eight million dollars had been borrowed through a private lender.
The collateral section listed one of Reed Holdings’ undeveloped waterfront properties.
Jonathan’s signature appeared on three pages.
He had never seen them.
William Hart spoke through the phone.
“The lender sent a notice to your old office address. Someone redirected it.”
“Marcus?”
“The forwarding authorization came from his personal assistant.”
Jonathan closed his eyes.
“What happened to the money?”
“Most went into a company called M.R. Ventures.”
Marcus Reed.
Eleanor sat across the table, pale and silent.
“Could it be one of his investments?” she asked.
“It is,” Jonathan said.
“Then perhaps he planned to repay it.”
“With company property he had no authority to pledge.”
Eleanor looked at the forged signature.
“He wouldn’t do this.”
Jonathan turned the page toward her.
“He did.”
“Maybe someone advised him.”
“He signed your name too.”
Eleanor stared.
Her signature appeared as a witness.
She had not witnessed anything.
Jonathan watched the denial disappear from her face.
“Did you give him money recently?”
She remained silent.
“Eleanor.”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“When?”
“Last month.”
“For what?”
“He said an investment had a temporary cash problem.”
Jonathan stood.
“You told me you stopped paying his debts.”
“I thought it was the final time.”
“There is always a final time until the next one.”
Eleanor began crying.
“I was afraid he would hate me.”
“And now he has learned that fear is profitable.”
Jonathan immediately contacted the lender.
The company agreed to pause enforcement while the alleged forgery was investigated.
But the money had already moved.
M.R. Ventures transferred millions into a luxury nightlife development called Crown Meridian.
The project did not own property.
It had no construction permits.
It was raising money through promises tied to the Reed name.
Jonathan called William again.
“Freeze every account we legally control.”
“What about Marcus’s personal accounts?”
“Do not touch anything that belongs to him.”
“And the loan?”
“Report the signatures.”
Eleanor looked up.
“To the police?”
“To the lender’s fraud department first. After that, the law takes its course.”
“He could be arrested.”
“He is thirty-one.”
“He is our child.”
“He is also an adult who forged our names.”
Eleanor covered her face.
Jonathan’s cheek still carried Marcus’s handprint.
Yet the physical blow was no longer the deepest wound.
The slap had lasted one second.
The financial deception required months.
William sent another file.
Security footage from a private signing office showed Marcus presenting the loan documents.
He smiled as the notary stamped them.
A second man stood beside him.
Jonathan recognized him as Blake Sutton, Marcus’s closest friend.
In the video, Blake asked:
“Are you sure your father won’t find out?”
May you like
Marcus answered:
“By the time he does, I’ll own enough to make him irrelevant.”
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