Victoria smiled, her eyes perfectly calm as she sat down opposite me and smoothed her dark silk skirt.
“Julian is a very sweet man, Ethan, but he has always been prone to panic,” she said, her voice dropping to that comforting, melodic whisper. “You should trust the people who built this company with you, Ethan.”
“He found a transfer of ninety thousand dollars,” I said. “To a firm called V and H Consultants.”
Victoria did not look up from her soup, but her fingers trembled slightly as she gripped the handle of her silver spoon. I watched her knuckle turn white against the polished metal.
“I am sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation,” she said, her voice remaining entirely smooth. “Perhaps it was an advance payment for the new barrel-charring equipment we discussed last month.”
“The signature was digital,” I said. “And the firm is based in Lexington. We do not use consultants in Lexington.”
