Chapter 5
For a long time, nobody spoke.
The only sound in David’s conference room was the low hum of the air conditioner.
I stared at my name on the screen.
Chief Financial Officer.
Authorized signatory.
Beneficial owner.
My name was everywhere.
It felt like I was looking at another woman.
A criminal version of me that Daniel had created on paper.
David leaned back slowly.
“This is more serious than a divorce.”
Lauren sat beside me.
“How serious?”
David looked at me before answering.
“If company funds were moved through an entity registered in Emily’s name, she could be questioned about it.”
“Questioned by who?”
“Banks. Investors. Potentially regulators or law enforcement, depending on what happened to the money.”
My hands turned cold.
“But I didn’t do any of this.”
“I know.”
“Can they prove that?”
“We’re going to.”
That answer should have comforted me.
It didn’t.
I looked at the transfer.
“Where did the $1.2 million go?”
David opened another file from the flash drive.
The transfer had gone from Daniel’s company into the shell company.
Then smaller amounts had gone out.
Two hundred thousand to the condo.
One hundred eighty thousand to repay a private lender.
Seventy thousand to a luxury car dealership.
Another hundred thousand to something labeled advisory services.
And then a transfer that made David stop.
“What?” I asked.
He zoomed in.
$350,000.
Recipient: Carter Family Holdings.
I frowned.
“What is that?”
David looked at me.
“You tell me.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
Lauren leaned closer.
“Who owns it?”
David searched through the documents.
Then his expression changed.
“Patricia Carter.”
Daniel’s mother.
I felt something inside me drop.
“No.”
David turned the screen.
There it was.
Patricia Carter.
Managing member.
Address: the Carter family home in Winnetka.
Lauren swore under her breath.
I stared at the name.
Patricia had known about the affair.
Now money linked to Daniel’s company had also been transferred into an entity she controlled.
Suddenly her tears at dinner looked different.
Maybe she wasn’t crying because her family was falling apart.
Maybe she was crying because she knew what we were about to find.
“Call Richard,” I said.
David held up a hand.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because right now we don’t know who knew what.”
“He gave me the drive.”
“That helps.”
“You think he could be involved too?”
“I think we should assume nothing.”
That sentence changed everything.
My phone buzzed again.
This time it wasn’t Daniel.
It was Patricia.
Please call me. There are things you don’t understand.
I showed David.
“Don’t answer.”
Then another text arrived.
Please don’t let Richard turn you against us.
Us.
Not Daniel.
Us.
Lauren saw it too.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
David looked at the documents.
“I think we’re about to find out.”
He continued going through the drive.
There were hundreds of emails.
Spreadsheets.
Contracts.
Scanned signatures.
Password-protected folders.
Some files had strange names.
One was labeled E.C. retirement.
My stomach tightened.
“Open that.”
David clicked.
The folder contained statements from my retirement account.
I stood so quickly my chair rolled backward.
“No.”
David looked at me.
“Emily.”
“No.”
I knew before he said it.
I had built that retirement account before Daniel.
Years of work.
Years of automatic contributions.
Years of telling myself I was being responsible.
“How much?”
David studied the statements.
“It looks like a loan was taken against it.”
I felt dizzy.
“How much?”
“About one hundred twenty thousand.”
Lauren grabbed my hand.
I looked at David.
“Can someone do that without me?”
“They shouldn’t be able to.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He paused.
“With enough personal information, access to your email, and forged documentation, fraud is possible.”
Daniel knew everything.
My Social Security number.
My mother’s maiden name.
My childhood address.
My first employer.
My passwords used to be variations of the same three phrases.
He knew them all.
I suddenly remembered something.
Six months earlier, I had received an email about a password reset on my retirement account.
I had asked Daniel if he had used my laptop.
He said no.
Then he told me it was probably phishing.
He even helped me delete the email.
My stomach turned.
“He was sitting right beside me.”
Lauren squeezed my hand.
“What?”
“When I got the password reset email.”
I could hear my own voice shaking.
“He told me it was fake.”
David started taking notes.
“Tell me everything you remember.”
I did.
Every suspicious email.
Every time Daniel borrowed my laptop.
Every account alert I dismissed because he explained it away.
Every document he asked me to sign without reading because we were running late.
David stopped me.
“What documents?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
I closed my eyes.
Last November.
Daniel had walked into the kitchen while I was making coffee.
He had an envelope.
He said the homeowner’s insurance company needed updated signatures.
I signed two pages.
Maybe three.
“Did you keep copies?”
“No.”
“Do you remember the company name?”
“No.”
I wanted to scream at myself.
How could I be so careless?
Then David said something that stopped me.
“Do not start blaming yourself.”
I looked at him.
“If someone you trust gives you documents and lies about what they are, the deception belongs to them.”
I nodded, but the shame stayed.
My phone buzzed.
Madison.
I opened the message.
Twenty-three screenshots arrived at once.
Daniel texting her.
I opened the first.
Once Emily signs the insurance forms, we’re clear.
My heart stopped.
The next message.
She never reads anything if I tell her we’re late.
I covered my mouth.
Lauren whispered, “Oh my God.”
Another screenshot.
Madison: Isn’t that risky?
Daniel: Not really. Married people sign for each other all the time.
Then:
Madison: What if she finds out?
Daniel: She won’t.
Then:
Madison: You always say that.
Daniel: Because I know my wife.
I put the phone down.
I couldn’t look anymore.
But David picked it up.
“May I?”
I nodded.
He read every screenshot.
His face hardened.
Then he stopped.
“What?”
He handed the phone back.
One conversation was from three months earlier.
Madison had asked:
When are you actually filing?
Daniel replied:
After the house closes.
She asked:
Which house?
He replied:
All of them if I can pull it off.
My vision blurred.
Madison wrote:
That sounds insane.
Daniel replied:
It’s only insane if someone catches you.
I stared at those words.
Not a misunderstanding.
Not desperation.
Not confusion.
A plan.
A deliberate plan.
I forwarded everything to David.
Then my phone rang.
Richard.
David looked at me.
“Speaker.”
I answered.
“Hello?”
Richard sounded out of breath.
“Emily, where are you?”
“With my lawyer.”
“Good.”
“What’s wrong?”
A pause.
Then he said, “Daniel came to the house.”
Lauren and I exchanged looks.
“What happened?”
“He wanted my laptop.”
“Why?”
“He thinks I have more records.”
“Do you?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
I stood.
“What records?”
“Copies from the company server.”
Daniel had gone to his parents’ house looking for evidence.
“Where is he now?”
“He left.”
“Did he take anything?”
“No.”
“Is Patricia there?”
Silence.
“Richard?”
“She left with him.”
My entire body went cold.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Did she say where they were going?”
“No.”
David took the phone.
“Richard, this is David Rosen. Listen carefully. Do not delete, move, or modify anything. Do not contact Daniel. Secure your devices and email me copies of whatever records you have.”
Richard sounded shaken.
“Okay.”
“And Richard?”
“Yes?”
“If you have any reason to believe Daniel is going somewhere to destroy documents or move assets, tell me now.”
The silence lasted too long.
Then Richard whispered, “The office.”
Daniel’s company office.
Downtown.
David immediately looked at the clock.
“What’s there?”
“Original contracts. Accounting records. Backup drives.”
“Does Daniel have access?”
“He owns the company.”
David stood.
“Richard, call the building security desk.”
“What do I tell them?”
“That there is a legal dispute involving company records and nothing is to be removed.”
“Will they listen?”
“Maybe. Do it anyway.”
He hung up.
Then David called someone from his own phone.
I barely listened.
I was thinking about Patricia.
She had left with Daniel.
The woman who told me she loved me.
The woman who claimed she didn’t know what to do.
She knew exactly what to do now.
She had chosen her son.
Again.
Madison called.
I answered.
“Where are you?”
Her voice was frantic.
“At my lawyer’s office.”
“Daniel just called me.”
“What did he want?”
“The second phone.”
“Where is it?”
“At the condo.”
“Are you there?”
“No.”
“Do not go there.”
“He said he needs it.”
“Of course he does.”
“He sounded crazy.”
I looked at David.
He was listening.
Madison continued.
“He said if I gave him the phone, he would give me fifty thousand dollars.”
Lauren’s eyebrows rose.
“Where would he get fifty thousand?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you agree?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Then Madison said, “Emily, there’s something on that phone I never told you about.”
My pulse quickened.
“What?”
“A voice recording.”
“Of what?”
“I recorded him one night because we were arguing.”
“About me?”
“About the money.”
David stepped closer.
“What did he say?”
Madison’s voice dropped.
“He said if everything went wrong, he already had someone else lined up to take the fall.”
I knew the answer before I asked.
“Who?”
She was silent.
May you like
Then she whispered.
“You.”
