Chapter 6 - The Audit Uncovers the Truth
By Wednesday of that week, my legal and forensic accounting teams had taken over the corporate offices on the fortieth floor of the Gallagher Tower.
I sat at the mahogany conference table—the same table where Harrison had sat for three years as Vice President—surrounded by three senior auditors from Deloitte and my attorney, Arthur Vance.
"Thomas," Arthur said, placing a thick black binder in front of me. "We completed the initial three-year financial review of Harrison's department. It's worse than we thought."
I opened the binder. Page after page of red ink highlighted unauthorized wire transfers, falsified vendor invoices, and bloated expense reports.
"What am I looking at, Arthur?" I asked, my blood running cold.
"Over the past eighteen months, Harrison redirected nearly 1.2 million dollars from the lakefront condo development project," Arthur explained, pointing at a series of corporate entities listed in the report. "He didn't just spend it on cars and clothes, Thomas. He was funneling money directly into Sterling Holdings—a shell company owned by Chloe's father, Richard Sterling."
I leaned back in my leather chair, taking a deep breath.
Richard Sterling was a disgraced former stockbroker who claimed to run a luxury import business. I had always suspected he was a fraud, but I had allowed Harrison to manage his own personal relationships without interference.
"Why was he sending money to Sterling?" I asked.
"Because Sterling Holdings was drowning in debt," Arthur replied. "Richard Sterling was facing foreclosure on his Lake Forest mansion and owed three million dollars to private lenders. Chloe didn't marry Harrison because she loved him, Thomas. She married him because her family needed access to the Gallagher fortune to save themselves from bankruptcy."
The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
The disrespect toward Martha wasn't just mindless cruelty; it was a calculated attempt to push my wife out of the picture, isolate me, and establish Harrison as the sole controller of the family estate. Chloe and her family had been manipulating Harrison's pathetic vanity for two years, convincing him that his mother was a burden and that he deserved the crown.
"Did Harrison know about the bankruptcy?" I asked.
"We don't think so," Arthur said, shaking his head. "Harrison thought he was being a big-shot investor. He thought he was buying equity in Sterling's import business. In reality, Richard Sterling was using Harrison as a personal piggy bank."
I looked out the window at the Chicago skyline. The city I had built with my own hands, brick by brick, beam by beam, was now staring back at me, waiting to see how Thomas Gallagher handled a betrayal within his own bloodline.
"Arthur," I said quietly, closing the binder with a sharp slap. "Call the District Attorney's office. File grand larceny and corporate embezzlement charges against Harrison Gallagher and Richard Sterling."
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Arthur blinked, surprised by the speed of my decision. "Thomas... if we press criminal charges, Harrison could face five to ten years in federal prison."
"Harrison made his choice when he treated his mother like trash for money and status," I replied, standing up and buttoning my suit jacket. "If he wants to act like a criminal, he can sleep like one."
