Chapter 7
Marlowe had collected roughly $1.4 million in commissions over four years.
After legitimate operating expenses, almost nine hundred thousand dollars moved into accounts connected to Dorothea’s trusts.
Harlan had received less than eighty thousand directly.
That did not make him innocent.
He had hidden the conflict.
Approved the deals.
Pressured Meredith.
But the money pointed toward Dorothea.
Rebecca found another pattern.
The largest commission increases began before Harlan and Meredith’s affair.
That mattered.
The financial betrayal had not grown out of the affair.
The affair had grown inside a scheme already operating.
Elisa returned to the visitor logs.
Dorothea’s presence at the Westchester house often matched contract-signing days.
Sometimes Meredith was there too.
Sometimes she was not.
Luca’s phrase returned to Elisa.
Grandma forced Mom to serve whenever that woman came home.
Meredith had been the most obvious woman.
Maybe not the only one who mattered.
Elisa called the house manager.
“Did Dorothea ever bring anyone else to the house?”
The manager hesitated.
“Occasionally.”
“Who?”
“Her financial adviser. A woman named Beth Carver.”
Elisa knew the name.
Beth had worked in rights accounting at D’Angelo House years earlier.
Marciano remembered her immediately.
“She left after we consolidated departments.”
“Was she fired?”
“Laid off.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
Two years before Elisa married Harlan.
Rebecca located Beth’s current business.
She now handled accounting administration for Marlowe International.
The structure became clearer.
Dorothea had used someone who understood publishing royalties.
Harlan had used his internal authority.
Meredith provided editorial recommendations.
Different people controlled different parts.
Elisa sat across from Marciano.
“Did Dorothea know Beth when she worked here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
Marciano raised an eyebrow.
Elisa corrected herself.
“Please.”
He almost smiled.
Old personnel records showed Dorothea had no formal role at the publishing house.
But social photographs from company events placed her beside Beth repeatedly.
Their late husbands had belonged to the same country club.
Rebecca found something else.
Before Harlan ever joined D’Angelo House, Beth had prepared a private analysis for Dorothea.
The title:
Pierce Family Royalty Losses — Historical Review.
Marciano frowned.
“Royalty losses from what?”
The answer came from an old author file.
May you like
Harlan’s father, Thomas Pierce, had written four successful political thrillers for D’Angelo House in the 1990s.
Dorothea believed the family had been underpaid for decades.
