Chapter 6 - Echoes of an Old Debt
The dial tone hummed like an electric shock against my ear. I took a deep breath, forcing my heart rate to steady. Panic is an auditor’s worst enemy; emotion clouds the ledger, and an errant ledger leads to disaster.
I stepped out of the Daley Center into the bitter Chicago chill, hailing a cab straight back to Lake Forest. When I arrived at the house, I found Jared in the kitchen, sleeves rolled up, working on his laptop while a pot of fresh coffee brewed on the stove.
He looked up and smiled, but his eyes narrowed as soon as he saw my face.
“Dad? Where have you been? You’re pale as a ghost.”
I closed the front door, locked the deadbolt, and took off my coat. “Jared, shut down your computer. Put your phone on airplane mode. We need to talk.”
Jared’s expression instantly turned serious. He didn't ask questions; he closed the laptop lid, tapped his phone screen, and set both devices on the far end of the granite island. “What happened?”
I reached into my inner jacket pocket and pulled out the printed microfilm copy, placing it on the counter between us alongside the uncashed cashier’s check and the note from Diane’s journal.
Jared leaned over, his eyes scanning the documents. When he saw the name *Lauren Montgomery* dated twelve years ago next to *Harrison Sterling*, his jaw dropped.
“What is this?” Jared gasped, his voice cracking. “Lauren told me she grew up in Denver and moved to Chicago six years ago! She swore she never worked in biotech until she met me!”
“She lied, Jared,” I said plainly. “She was Harrison Sterling’s executive assistant and legal proxy twelve years ago. And this forty-thousand-dollar check was made out to your mother.”
Jared picked up the note with trembling fingers. *“The secret Diane kept was to save him.”*
“Save who?” Jared whispered, his eyes welling with shock. “Dad... who was Mom saving?”
“I think she was saving you,” I said gently. “Jared, think back to twelve years ago. Northwestern lab. You were working on the core patent for the diagnostic engine. There was an incident. An explosion or a contaminated batch that shut the department down for three months. Do you remember?”
Jared stumbled backward, his hand catching the edge of the stool. “The incident in Bay 4... Professor Vance and Harrison Sterling were the primary grant holders. They told me my experimental code caused a fatal pressure surge in the bioreactor. They told me two lab assistants were injured.”
“And what did they do about it?” I pressed.
“They told me they handled it!” Jared’s voice shook with suppressed horror. “Harrison Sterling pulled me into his office. He said my career would be destroyed, that I could face criminal negligence charges. But he said because he believed in my brilliance, he settled with the victims privately and sealed the report. He told me to sign over thirty percent of my initial diagnostic patent royalties to an anonymous holding trust as compensation for the settlement!”
The truth hit me with the force of an avalanche.
“There was no pressure surge caused by your code,” I said, the pieces snapping together with crystal clarity. “Your mother was on the Northwestern safety review board. She must have audited the lab logs. She discovered the truth: Sterling’s own team intentionally sabotaged that reactor to steal your patent and blackmail you into signing away your royalties before you even graduated!”
“And Mom found out...” Jared choked out.
“She found out,” I continued, my voice thick with emotion. “Sterling tried to pay her forty thousand dollars to keep quiet—or perhaps she demanded forty thousand dollars to see if he would put his guilt on paper. But she never cashed the check. If she had cashed it, she would have been an accomplice to extortion.”
“Then why didn't she tell me?” Jared cried out, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Why didn't she tell you, Dad?”
“Because Harrison Sterling was dangerous,” a cold voice suddenly sounded from the front porch.
The doorbell rang once, sharp and authoritative.
May you like
Through the narrow sidelight window next to the oak door, I saw a tall man standing in the falling snow, wearing an immaculate cashmere coat, flanked by two burly men in dark suits.
***