Chapter 10 - The Desperate Husband
The door opened just an inch. Richard stepped inside, accompanied by a burly hospital security guard with a radio strapped to his chest.
Richard’s face was grim.
"He's downstairs," Richard said quietly, shutting the door behind him.
My blood ran cold. "Eric?"
"He posted a preliminary surety bond before the federal hold could be processed by the magistrate," Richard explained, his jaw tight. "His corporate partners posted cash bail on the local charges. He showed up at the main lobby twenty minutes ago demanding to see 'his daughter.'"
"He isn't coming near her," I said, my voice dropping into a low, vicious growl that surprised even myself.
"He isn't," Richard reassured me. "Security has him pinned in the vestibule. The police are on their way to arrest him for violating Judge Harper's emergency protective order. But Lydia... he didn't come here just to cause a scene. He had his bankruptcy attorney with him."
"Why?"
Richard pulled a folded set of documents from his coat pocket. "Because while you were in delivery, the forensic accountants finished unencrypting the secondary ledger from Caroline Holdings. The one you told me to look at on page forty-two."
I stared at him, my heart beginning to hammer against my ribs. "What did they find?"
"Eric wasn't just hiding his own income," Richard said, stepping closer to my bed and lowering his voice so only I could hear. "The two million dollars isn't his consulting money, Lydia. Eric has been acting as an unlicensed domestic wash for an offshore private equity group based out of Panama. He took a thirty percent cut to scrub dirty money through shell LLCs named after family members."
The room seemed to spin.
May you like
"He used my mother's name... to launder dirty money?"
"Yes," Richard said grimly. "And that's why he was so frantic to get you to sign a sealed settlement before the delivery. If the court audit exposed Caroline Holdings, the entire paper trail leading back to his overseas handlers became public record."
