Claire turned.
“Authorize what?”
I opened my laptop.
Connected to our secure corporate portal.
Then checked the transaction queue.
There it was.
A pending ownership-transfer package.
Not of Sentinel Ridge itself.
Of a newly formed subsidiary.
RIDGELINE FACILITY TECHNOLOGIES LLC.
I had never seen the company name.
The transfer package included three client service agreements scheduled to move from Sentinel Ridge into Ridgeline at the end of the quarter.
Combined annual revenue:
$4.7 million.
My mouth went dry.
Ryan had created a company.
And he was quietly moving our most profitable service contracts into it.
“Who owns Ridgeline?”
Claire whispered.
I opened the corporate filing.
Ryan Cole.
Seventy percent.
And another person.
Thirty percent.
Claire Holloway.
My wife stopped breathing.
“I don't own that.”
Ryan finally spoke.
“It was temporary.”
Claire turned toward him.
“What?”
“I needed a second member.”
“You put my name on a company?”
“You knew we were going to leave.”
Her eyes widened.
“Leave Grant.”
“I told you that.”
“I didn't tell you to put me on a company.”
Ryan became irritated.
“You wanted a future.”
“A future with you.”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
Claire stepped backward.
“I said I wanted to leave my marriage.”
“I did not say I wanted to steal Grant’s business.”
Ryan glanced at me.
“That’s not what this is.”
I looked at him.
“It is exactly what this is.”
Chapter 5: The Second Betrayal
For the next twenty minutes, the affair almost became background noise.
That sounds impossible.
It wasn't.
Marriage betrayal destroyed one part of my life.
Business theft threatened forty-three employees, our clients, our debt obligations, and everything Ryan and I had built over thirteen years.
I pulled the transfer documents.
Some had my digital signature.
I had not signed them.
One resolution claimed that I had approved the movement of three service contracts to Ridgeline as part of a “strategic restructuring.”
I read it twice.
Then looked at Ryan.
“You forged this.”
“No.”
“That's my signature.”
“It’s an electronic authorization.”
“I never authorized it.”
“You created the backup credential.”
“For emergencies.”
“This was necessary.”
Claire looked at him as if she had never seen him before.
“Necessary for what?”
Ryan’s control started slipping.
“Grant was killing the company.”
That surprised me.
“How?”
“You refuse to grow.”
“We grew twenty-one percent last year.”
“Not enough.”
I stared at him.
Ryan stepped closer to the desk.