Chapter 46
Chapter 46
Ellia and her assistants sorted out the audits in Christian’s study, explaining to them how it was arranged. And they started going through the stacks together. Russell somehow managed to convince his mother and Lucianne that he’ll be a good, quiet little boy doing his homework at a small corner table in the study while the adults around him worked. Xandar didn’t mind since he was far away enough from Lucianne. 2
Since Ellia, Brigetta and Oliver were blackmailed into fabricating the audits without question, they never dared to scrutinize how the funds in the five people’s accounts were connected to each other. They were just told to change the figures so that the amounts resembled those of other government officials. (This novel will be daily updtaed at www.noveljar.com)In essence, the analysis on the real audits had to now start from scratch. After comparing the audits, they found a pattern in the incoming and outgoing transactions of the five people in Ellia’s list. 1 This material belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.
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Every month for the past eighteen years, large sums of money would be deposited into the five people’s bank accounts. But the money did not come from a government account. The money that was channeled into the five people’s accounts came from twenty different bank accounts. So it would seem that the government funds were first deposited into the twenty different bank accounts, then transferred to the five people on the list.
What was odd was this: on a rotation basis, four of the five people in the list would transfer twenty percent of the siphoned sums to a company. The fifth person would transfer forty percent to the same company. Each person on the list would take turns being this fifth person to transfer forty percent every month
As for the company they transferred the money to, it changed every five years. For the first five years, it was to Rénova & Co. In the subsequent five years, it was to Hanabell Poll & Co. In the following five
years, it was to a firm called Tellilla & Associates. And in the final three years and early this year, the money was transferred to Wu Bi Corporation. Brigetta and Annie looked up the names of these companies. The first three didn’t exist. The most recent one, Wu Bi Corporation, had more than ten subsidiary companies, which in turn had further subsidiaries. The chain was long and seemingly infinite.
When Annie made everyone pause to take a break while she, Christian and Oliver went to the kitchen to get everyone a snack, Lucianne went to stand in front of the huge window in the study and stared into space. Xandar approached his mate and joined her at the window. His hand rested on her shoulder, and his thumb started drawing comforting circles on her skin as he desperately tried to ease her tension.
He linked in a low, ominous tone, ‘Looks like you were right. There is someone we don’t know yet.’
‘I prefer to be wrong about this.’
He kissed her temple before continuing, ‘We’ll find out who it is…or who they are. We’re
making good progress already. We’ll figure it out.’
‘I know that. I just…hope that we’ll figure everything out before anyone gets hurt.’ Lucianne looked at Russell, who was concentrating on his homework before she linked, ‘We promised t o protect them, Xandar. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if anything happened to any of them.’
“Hey, come here.”Xandar said soothingly and pulled her into a hug as he whispered, “They’ll b e safe here. We’ll catch these culprits before anything happens.” He kissed her forehead, and when they turned back to everyone in the room, Lucianne dropped her worried look, replacing it with a calm demeanor.
Christian, Annie and Oliver re-entered the room carrying trays of cupcakes and pudding.(This novel will be daily updtaed at www.noveljar.com) Russell’s eyes snapped up when he saw the food and he looked at his mother, as if asking for her permission. Ellia gave him an approving nod, granting him permission. And Russell smiled radiantly as he left his homework and ran towards the snacks.
He took two cupcakes from the tray and ran towards Lucianne. He lifted one of the cupcakes u p in her direction. Lucianne smiled and accepted the cupcake from Russell before pecking a kiss on his forehead and thanking him. The little boy was on cloud nine as he dashed back to his mother’s side to tell her that Aunt Lucy gave him another kiss.
Knowing how Xandar would react, Lucianne pecked a kiss on his cheek after Russell left. Xandar’s annoyed face turned soft, and he pecked a kiss on her nose before they joined the others on the couch, with Lucianne seated on his lap. 1
The families seem to be finding it easier to be around the royal family, and they spoke and laughed more freely than when they first arrived. Lucianne and Xandar helped Annie send the trays back to the kitchen. Russell followed closely behind, carrying two emptied cups as h e followed the adults. He refused to leave the kitchen until the three adults he followed made their way back to the study.
They continued looking into Wu Bi Corporation. On the internet, the corporation was registered as being a textile manufacturer. However, there is no such brand in the clothing market. They then thought that the corporation manufactured fabrics and clothing for other brands and companies. But to their dismay, there was also no such information to confirm their thoughts. The corporation’s business dealings were confidential so no one knew who it was doing business with. Xandar and Christian said they had to pull a few strings to dig deeper into Wu Bi. That evening, there was nothing more anyone could do.
After bidding their goodbyes, (This novel will be daily updtaed at www.noveljar.com)Lucianne, Xandar and Christian left to attend dinner in the dining hall. When Lucianne wasn’t looking, Christian mind-linked Xandar, shooting his cousin and best friend a sad but grateful smile before getting into his car. Xandar returned his smile but the King himself was sad too.
He got into his own car where Lucianne was already waiting for him and started the engine. Xandar started pondering on the pes
lering on the best way to tell his mate what Christian had just told him. It
wasn’t something that he, Christian or Annie liked to bring up but Lucianne was practically family.well, family-to-be if one wants to get technical…and optimistic. Even so, she had the right to know.