He had taken short-term loans merely to keep subcontractors paid.
The Bennett Industrial contracts had been supposed to save the company.
Now those contracts were being reviewed.
“You’re destroying my company because of a marriage dispute,” Daniel said.
Nathan stood.
“No. Your company was depending on agreements it had not yet earned. Bennett Industrial has every right to review vendors when its risk changes.”
“This is revenge.”
“This is due diligence.”
After they left, Daniel called Claire six times.
She ignored every call.
Then he called Vanessa.
She arrived twenty minutes later wearing sunglasses and carrying coffee.
Daniel told her everything at once.
The Bennett family.
The inheritance.
The frozen contracts.
Vanessa slowly lowered her cup.
“You said Claire came from a normal family.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“You were married to a Bennett and didn’t know?”
Daniel heard the contempt beneath her disbelief.
By noon, Vanessa had found another reason to worry.
Their relationship was no longer private.
Company email records showed hotel reservations, expense reports, and messages exchanged during business hours.
If Daniel’s divorce became public, lenders and investors might begin questioning his judgment.
“We need to be careful,” she said.
Daniel stared at her.
“We?”
Vanessa hesitated.
That pause told him more than whatever she said next.
That evening, Claire sat inside her mother’s Lake Forest home with attorney Evelyn Shaw, reviewing six years of bank statements.
Claire had never been involved in Daniel’s company.
Yet her name appeared on personal guarantees she had no memory of signing.
Evelyn tapped one page.
“This signature is supposed to be yours.”
Claire studied it carefully.
It looked close.
Almost too close.
“I didn’t sign that.”
The room fell silent.
The guarantee secured a $2.4 million commercial credit line.
Nathan muttered a curse.
