Chapter 3 - What Lies Beneath Harbor Point
By midnight, the quiet of our home in Evanston felt less like a sanctuary and more like the eye of a hurricane.
Leo was asleep upstairs in his bed, exhausted by the adrenaline crash following the gala showdown. I sat at the kitchen island with my laptop open, the glow of the screen illuminating the dark room. Beside me sat a thick legal binder Rebecca had dropped off before midnight.
Harbor Point.
The name had slipped out of Leo’s phone recording like a dropped pin in a minefield. According to the preliminary land registry search Rebecca’s firm had pulled up within twenty minutes of the gala ending, Harbor Point wasn’t just a random location. It was a multi-million-dollar luxury residential development site on the northern shore of Lake Michigan—and the primary deed was registered under an LLC called Meridian Holdings.
I searched the corporate filings for Meridian Holdings.
The principal owner listed on the incorporation documents wasn’t Julian Vance.
It was Chloe Mercer.
My hands trembled slightly as I scrolled through the financial trails. Over the past three years, exactly $1.2 million had been siphoned out of Vance Development’s secondary capital accounts—money intended for municipal infrastructure bids—and funneled through shell companies into the purchase and zoning permits for Harbor Point.
Julian hadn't just been cheating on me with his office manager. He had been using company funds to build a secret empire with her, using her name as a shield to keep his own hands clean from federal embezzlement charges.
My phone buzzed on the counter. An unknown number.
I stared at it for three rings before sliding the screen to answer.
“Claire?”
It was Chloe’s voice. Gone was the smug, untouchable poise she had worn in the ballroom. She sounded frantic, breathless, and terrified.
“How did you get this number, Chloe?” I asked coldly.
“Julian’s gone. His phone is disconnected, and the board has already locked him out of the corporate server,” she rushed out, her words tumbling over each other. “Claire, you don’t understand. I didn’t want any of this. Julian forced me into the LLC paperwork. He said if I didn’t let him use my name for Harbor Point, he would fire me and ruin my career in Chicago real estate!”
I let out a cold, humorless laugh. “Is that why you were wearing my anniversary necklace at the gala? Was that part of Julian’s forced corporate compliance too?”
“Listen to me!” Chloe cried out, her voice cracking. “Julian has been hiding millions in offshore accounts in the Caymans. If the federal investigators audit Harbor Point, I’m the one taking the fall as the registered owner! I have all the original wire transfer receipts, Claire. Every single document proving Julian orchestrated the entire embezzlement scheme. I’ll give them to you. I’ll give you everything.”
May you like
I leaned back against the kitchen counter, my mind racing with the tactical implications. “Meet me at Rebecca Sloan’s office tomorrow at nine a.m. Bring every file, every hard drive, and every text message. If you’re lying to save your own skin, Chloe, you’ll share a prison cell with him.”
The line clicked dead.
