Eventually, we expanded.
Apartment buildings.
Commercial properties.
Small shopping centers.
Then larger developments.
Malcolm joined us eight years after we started.
He was brilliant with numbers.
Ambitious.
And, I believed, loyal.
When Henry died eighteen years ago, Malcolm sat beside me at the funeral.
He told me Cedarline would survive.
He promised to help me protect everything Henry and I had built.
I never imagined that one day I’d be sitting in a police station wondering whether he’d been waiting for the chance to take it.
Detective Grant opened another file.
“Mrs. Sutter, was Malcolm authorized to transfer large amounts of company money?”
I swallowed.
“He has signing authority for routine operating expenses.”
“How large?”
“Anything above two hundred thousand requires additional approval.”
She looked toward Daniel.
“Then someone bypassed that requirement.”
I stared at the forged documents.
“And they used my name.”
Grant nodded.
“That’s what the records suggest.”
