Chapter 4
I stared at the messages until the screen went dark.
Then I turned it back on and read them again.
DON’T TRUST DANIEL.
MICHAEL ISN’T THE ONLY PERSON WHO STOLE FROM THE COMPANY.
ASK REBECCA WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINAL AUDIT.
My first thought was Michael.
It had to be.
Some pathetic attempt to confuse me.
But Michael wouldn’t tell me not to trust Daniel while admitting he stole.
He would deny everything.
I checked the number.
No name.
No photo.
I called.
Straight to voicemail.
I didn’t leave a message.
Instead, I took screenshots.
Then I emailed them to myself.
I had learned one thing from fifteen years with Michael.
If something mattered, keep a copy he couldn’t reach.
At seven, Sophie woke beside me.
“Mom?”
I wiped my eyes before turning around.
“Morning, baby.”
She squinted.
“Why are you here?”
“I came late.”
“Where’s Dad?”
My chest tightened.
“At home.”
She sat up.
“Did you guys fight?”
Thirteen-year-olds always knew more than adults hoped.
“A little.”
She studied my face.
Then her eyes widened.
“What happened to your cheek?”
I had forgotten.
The swelling had gone down, but the red mark remained.
I pulled my hair forward.
“Nothing.”
“Mom.”
“Sophie—”
“Did Dad do that?”
The question destroyed me.
I looked at her.
I wanted to protect her from everything.
But lying would teach her something worse.
“Yes.”
She stared at me.
“He hit you?”
“It happened once.”
The sentence sounded awful the second I said it.
Once.
As if frequency determined whether it mattered.
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears.
“Why?”
“We had an argument.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
She sounded so much like me.
Or maybe I was finally beginning to sound like her.
“He was angry.”
She climbed out of bed.
“I want to go home.”
“No.”
“I want to talk to him.”
“No, Sophie.”
“He can’t do that!”
“I know.”
“You always tell me nobody gets to hit people because they’re mad.”
“I know.”
“Then call the police.”
Her voice broke.
I took her hands.
“I’m handling it.”
“How?”
“I’m speaking with a lawyer today.”
Her face changed.
“A divorce lawyer?”
I didn’t answer quickly enough.
She pulled her hands away.
“You’re getting divorced?”
“I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Sophie.”
“You hate him now.”
“No.”
That surprised both of us.
I didn’t hate Michael.
I wished I did.
Hatred would have been simpler than mourning someone who was still alive.
“I’m angry with him.”
“Did he cheat on you?”
My mouth went dry.
“How do you know to ask that?”
She looked away.
“Sophie.”
“I saw a message.”
My heart stopped.
“What message?”
“On Dad’s phone.”
“When?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“What did it say?”
She picked at the edge of the blanket.
“It said, ‘I miss waking up next to you.’”
I closed my eyes.
“Who sent it?”
“I don’t know. It just had an L.”
Lauren.
Of course.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Dad said it was from Uncle Leo.”
Michael didn’t have an Uncle Leo.
Sophie knew that too.
Her chin trembled.
“He told me I misunderstood.”
I pulled her into my arms.
“I’m sorry.”
She started crying.
“I should’ve told you.”
“No.”
I held her tighter.
“This is not your responsibility.”
“But maybe—”
“No.”
I made her look at me.
“Whatever your father did, it is between the adults who made those choices. You didn’t cause it. You couldn’t have stopped it.”
The front doorbell rang downstairs.
My mother called up.
“Emily?”
I wiped my face.
“I’m coming.”
At the front door stood Rebecca.
She looked like she hadn’t slept.
“Can we talk?”
My mother crossed her arms.
“After what your brother did?”
Rebecca glanced at my cheek.
“I’m not here for Michael.”
That got my attention.
I stepped outside and closed the door behind me.
Cold December air hit my face.
Rebecca handed me a coffee.
“I thought you might need it.”
I didn’t take it.
“Did you have an audit done before?”
Her hand stopped.
It was tiny.
Almost invisible.
But I saw it.
“Why?”
“Answer me.”
Rebecca looked toward the street.
“Who contacted you?”
“So there was one.”
She exhaled.
“Emily.”
“There was an original audit.”
“It wasn’t a full audit.”
“What was it?”
“A preliminary review.”
“When?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
Before Michael said his affair started.
My stomach tightened.
“What did it find?”
Rebecca rubbed her forehead.
“Expense irregularities.”
“Connected to Michael?”
“Some.”
“And Lauren?”
“She wasn’t specifically named.”
“Was LJM Strategic Solutions?”
Rebecca’s silence was enough.
I stared at her.
“You knew?”
“I knew there was a vendor that looked suspicious.”
“And you did nothing?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Three hundred thousand dollars may have been stolen from your company.”
“We didn’t know it was that much.”
“Then how much did you know?”
She lowered her voice.
“About forty-eight thousand.”
I stepped backward.
“You buried it.”
“No.”
“Did the board know?”
“Two members.”
“Daniel?”
She hesitated again.
“Yes.”
My anonymous message echoed in my head.
DON’T TRUST DANIEL.
“Why wasn’t Michael confronted?”
“He was.”
I stared at her.
Rebecca continued.
“He said the vendor was connected to a confidential expansion project.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“Then why stop?”
Her face hardened.
“Because our mother was dying.”
I froze.
Michael and Rebecca’s mother had died eleven months ago after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.
Rebecca swallowed.
“She had six weeks left when we discovered the transactions. Michael begged me not to blow up the company while she was dying.”
“And you agreed?”
“He promised a complete explanation after the funeral.”
“But after the funeral?”
“He kept delaying.”
I looked at her.
“You let him.”
“Yes.”
At least she admitted it.
“I made a terrible decision.”
“What happened to the report?”
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“Daniel kept it.”
The warning tightened around my thoughts.
“Why?”
“He commissioned the review.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
I stared at her.
“Then how did you find out about it?”
“He came to me.”
“When?”
“The day after he received the preliminary report.”
“And nobody else has a copy?”
“Daniel said the auditor’s firm retained one.”
“What firm?”
She hesitated.
“Wells & Mercer.”
I pulled out my phone and wrote it down.
Rebecca watched me.
“Why are you asking?”
“Someone texted me.”
I showed her the messages.
Her face changed as she read them.
“Do you recognize the number?”
“No.”
“Could it be Lauren?”
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca read the final message again.
“Ask Rebecca what happened to the original audit.”
She looked up.
“Whoever sent this knows internal details.”
“Meaning?”
“Very few people knew about that review.”
“How few?”
“Me. Daniel. Michael. The outside auditor.”
“And the two board members?”
“They knew concerns existed. They didn’t see the report.”
I put my phone away.
“Who was the auditor?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“A woman named Natalie Carter.”
“Can I speak to her?”
“I can try to find her.”
“Try?”
“She left Wells & Mercer six months ago.”
Of course she did.
“Do you know why?”
“No.”
Rebecca finally held the coffee out again.
This time I took it.
“Emily, there’s something else.”
I waited.
“Michael called me at three this morning.”
“What did he want?”
“He said you took documents from his office.”
My blood chilled.
“I didn’t take anything.”
“Did you see anything?”
I thought about the private bank account.
The photographs on my phone.
I looked at Rebecca.
“Why?”
“Because he sounded terrified.”
“Good.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
She stepped closer.
“If you found financial records, don’t confront him alone.”
I thought of Michael blocking the hallway.
Sit down.
No.
Sit down.
My fingers tightened around the coffee cup.
“I found an account.”
Rebecca went still.
“How much?”
“Almost half a million dollars.”
Her face drained.
“Where did the money come from?”
“Some transfers were from LJM.”
She whispered something I couldn’t hear.
“What?”
“This is bigger than I thought.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number again.
Rebecca and I looked at each other.
I opened the message.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Daniel sitting at a restaurant table.
Across from him was Lauren.
The date stamp at the bottom was seven months earlier.
Then came a message.
THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER LONGER THAN YOU THINK.
Before I could respond, another image arrived.
This one showed Michael, Daniel, and a man I didn’t recognize entering a downtown office building late at night.
Rebecca stared over my shoulder.
“Oh my God.”
“Who’s the third man?”
She didn’t answer.
“Rebecca?”
Her voice dropped.
“That’s Victor Hale.”
“Who is Victor Hale?”
May you like
She looked at me with genuine fear.
“Our biggest competitor.”
