Chapter 9 - THE AFFAIR WAS NOT RYAN’S BIGGEST SECRETForensic accountants found money moving between Ryan and Claire.
At first, I assumed gifts.
Hotels.
Travel.
Then we found payments into a company called Meridian Advisory LLC.
Owner:
Ryan.
Source:
A vendor doing business with Harrison Logistics.
My brother had been receiving kickbacks.
For four years.
Total:
$6.8 million.
Suddenly his desperation for company control made more sense.
Dad had suspected financial misconduct before he died.
He couldn’t prove it.
The trust protected the company anyway.
Ryan wanted control partly because an independent audit under my leadership was getting closer to his scheme.
The affair with Claire gave him access to my home.
My schedule.
My passwords.
She once photographed a document in my study because Ryan said it was “for family planning.”
That document contained vendor-review dates.
He used it to move money before audits.
Claire had unintentionally—or perhaps recklessly—helped conceal fraud.
When I confronted her, she looked genuinely shocked.
“He told me those payments were consulting income.”
“You never asked why he needed documents from my office?”
“He said you were freezing him out.”
I stared.
“You believed him because you wanted to.”
She cried.
Probably true.
May you like
Ryan had not only slept with my wife.
He had used her resentment to protect himself from criminal exposure.
