Chapter 7 - The Bakery BuildingSimone stared at the address.
“No.”
Danielle took the paper.
“You lease space there?”
“I signed three months ago.”
Ashley looked at her.
“Did Marcus find the property?”
Simone closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The answer humiliated her.
Again.
Marcus had presented the location as a lucky opportunity.
A renovated brick storefront.
Commercial kitchen potential.
Large front windows.
Affordable rent.
He had told her a business contact knew the owner and could negotiate favorable terms.
Simone had been proud.
She believed Carter Bespoke Cakes had finally grown enough to deserve a dedicated studio.
Now Darius said, “Reed Development deposited twenty-eight thousand dollars in earnest money toward purchasing the building.”
“When?”
“Six weeks ago.”
Simone felt dizzy.
“That’s after I signed my lease.”
“Yes.”
Danielle asked, “Who is the current owner?”
“A company called Fowler Commercial.”
“And closing?”
“Scheduled in nineteen days.”
Ashley leaned toward the table.
“With what financing?”
Darius looked at her.
“That appears connected to the warehouse refinance.”
The architecture of Marcus’s plan slowly emerged.
Not all of it.
Enough.
He had a failing property venture.
A warehouse loan due.
A refinance dependent partly on financial representations involving Ashley.
At the same time he was trying to acquire Simone’s bakery building.
Simone whispered, “Why?”
Ashley answered before anyone else.
“Control.”
Simone looked at her.
Ashley continued.
“If he owned your building, you would pay rent to him.”
Danielle added, “And your business would become tied to his asset.”
Simone’s stomach turned.
Marcus had spoken often about her future.
“We should build something together.”
“One day you’ll stop paying somebody else’s mortgage.”
“Imagine owning your kitchen.”
She had heard romance.
Maybe he had been describing a balance sheet.
Ashley whispered, “He was trying to marry me and become your landlord in the same month.”
No one spoke.
Simone stood and walked toward the window.
Her bakery had been her one unquestioned accomplishment.
She had started from a rented church kitchen.
Then farmers’ markets.
Then custom birthday cakes.
Then weddings.
She had saved for years to move into the studio.
Marcus had attended the lease signing dinner.
He had raised a glass.
To Simone owning her future.
She suddenly wanted to break something.
Instead she pressed both hands against the windowsill.
Danielle said, “Simone.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
Simone laughed.
“Apparently everybody knows what I am except me.”
Ashley looked down.
The sentence hurt because she understood it.
Darius said, “We can notify the seller that Reed Development funds may be implicated in an internal fraud investigation.”
Danielle nodded.
“And Simone’s lease survives a sale under its terms unless there’s a lawful basis to terminate.”
Simone turned.
“So even if Marcus buys the building—”
“We will not allow you to be pressured into anything without review.”
Simone exhaled.
Ashley asked, “Can we stop the closing?”
Darius responded, “Bennett can pursue a civil injunction if we establish company funds contributed to the deposit.”
“Do it.”
“Ashley, your mother has not authorized litigation.”
Ashley stared.
“My mother?”
“Evelyn wants an internal resolution first.”
Ashley laughed.
“Of course she does.”
Darius’s expression stayed neutral.
“The company is family-controlled. Major litigation requires authorization.”
“Marcus stole from us.”
“Allegedly, until established.”
“Darius.”
“I’m telling you how counsel must speak.”
Ashley stood.
“I’m going to talk to my mother.”
She left.
Simone watched the door close.
Danielle said quietly, “This is where her interests and yours may diverge.”
Simone nodded.
“I know.”
“Bennett may want confidentiality.”
“I don’t.”
“Do you want criminal prosecution?”
Simone hesitated.
The word changed the air.
“I want my name cleared.”
“That is not the same answer.”
“I know.”
Danielle leaned back.
“You do not have to decide today.”
Across town, Ashley entered Evelyn’s office without knocking.
Her mother was reading the preliminary audit.
“You want to keep this internal?”
Evelyn sighed.
“I want facts.”
“We have facts.”
“We have preliminary findings.”
“We have altered invoices under Marcus’s credentials.”
“Yes.”
“We have my electronic signature used without permission.”
“Yes.”
“We have corporate rent paying for his girlfriend’s home.”
“Yes.”
“Then what exactly are you waiting for?”
Evelyn removed her glasses.
“For us not to destroy a company your grandfather built because you’re humiliated.”
Ashley recoiled.
“This is not about humiliation.”
“Everything is about humiliation right now.”
“My wedding collapsed in front of sixty people.”
“Twenty-eight.”
“That helps.”
Evelyn sighed.
“Ashley.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You are treating exposure like the danger.”
“I am treating instability like the danger.”
“Marcus is the instability.”
“And he is gone.”
“Not from the accounts. Not from Simone’s business. Not from that building.”
Evelyn’s face hardened.
“We can recover funds privately.”
Ashley stared.
“You want him to repay us and disappear.”
“If possible.”
“And Simone?”
“She has counsel.”
Ashley felt something change.
Her mother was not cruel.
Evelyn had spent thirty years protecting the company.
But protection had become instinct.
Instinct had become secrecy.
Ashley had seen this pattern somewhere before.
Marcus.
“I’m not burying this.”
Evelyn stood.
“You do not control the board.”
“No.”
Ashley looked at her mother.
“But I control whether I participate in the lie.”
Her phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
Before you destroy Marcus, ask what your father knew about Reed Development.
Attached was a photograph.
Ashley opened it.
Her late father stood beside Marcus in front of the West End warehouse.
On the back of the scanned photo was a handwritten date.
Three years earlier.
And a note in her father’s handwriting:
Marcus — $150K bridge. Repay after Bennett deal. Keep Ashley out until stabilized.
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Ashley stopped breathing.
Her father had known.
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