Chapter 4 - THE COMPANY WITH MY MONEY
Claire arrived at my house before sunset.
She brought another attorney with her.
Marcus Hale.
Forensic finance specialist.
Daniel would have hated him immediately.
Marcus spoke slowly.
Asked precise questions.
And seemed unimpressed by wealth.
Within an hour, he was sitting at my dining room table with three laptops open.
“Bennett Meridian Holdings,” he said.
“Ever heard of it?”
“No.”
“Your husband has.”
He turned the screen.
The company had been formed twenty-two months earlier.
Daniel owned forty percent.
Richard owned thirty percent.
The remaining thirty percent belonged to another LLC.
Marcus clicked.
That company traced back to Lauren.
My husband.
His father.
His sister.
A family company.
One they had never mentioned to me.
“What does it own?”
I asked.
“We’re finding out.”
Marcus looked at Claire.
Then back at me.
“Rachel, I need to ask something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Did you inherit money during your marriage?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“About $1.8 million after my mother died.”
“Where did it go?”
“Investment accounts.”
“Managed by?”
“Daniel.”
Marcus leaned back.
There was the first sign of concern on his face.
“How much remains?”
I opened the account.
$1.12 million.
Marcus stared at the screen.
“Do you know where the rest went?”
“No.”
He started typing.
Twenty minutes later, he found the first connection.
A transfer.
$250,000.
Then another.
$175,000.
Then $90,000.
All eventually linked to Bennett Meridian.
I felt physically sick.
“That was my mother’s money.”
Claire touched my arm.
“We document first.”
Marcus continued searching.
“Rachel, did you sign investment authorization forms?”
“Possibly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Daniel would bring documents home.”
“You signed without reading?”
Sometimes the truth makes you look foolish.
I forced myself to say it anyway.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he was my husband.”
Marcus nodded.
No judgment.
Just information.
Then he found something else.
A commercial property purchased eighteen months earlier.
Ownership.
Bennett Meridian Holdings.
Purchase price.
$2.4 million.
Down payment.
$600,000.
I knew where most of that money had come from.
My mother.
I walked away from the table.
For a few minutes, I couldn’t speak.
My mother had worked for forty years.
She had raised me alone after my father died.
She had saved carefully.
She had left me everything because she wanted me to be secure.
Daniel had taken part of that inheritance and used it to build something with the family that helped him betray me.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
This time, Claire looked at me.
“Answer.”
I did.
“Rachel.”
He sounded frantic.
“Where are you?”
“Home.”
“I’m coming back.”
“Thought you were going to Rome.”
“We canceled.”
“How unfortunate.”
“Rachel, please.”
I looked at Claire.
She nodded toward the recording app on her phone.
“Vanessa misunderstood everything.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“She thinks you’re divorcing me.”
Silence.
“Daniel?”
“I was going to explain.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“Before or after you proposed?”
Another silence.
Then his voice changed.
“Were you in my office?”
There it was.
Not heartbreak.
Not regret.
Fear.
“Why?”
“You had no right to go through my private documents.”
I almost couldn’t believe it.
“Your private documents?”
“Rachel, some of those files involve confidential investments.”
“My investments?”
He stopped breathing for a second.
I heard it.
“What are you talking about?”
“Come home.”
“Rachel.”
“We can discuss it here.”
“Don’t touch anything.”
That sentence was a gift.
Claire wrote something on her legal pad.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t understand what you’re looking at.”
“Then come explain it.”
Daniel went quiet.
Finally he said,
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
The call ended.
Marcus closed one laptop.
“You shouldn’t be here when he arrives.”
I looked at him.
“This is my house.”
Claire answered instead.
“And tonight isn’t about surrendering your house.”
She stood.
“It’s about controlling the next move.”
I understood.
Daniel expected the wife he had always known.
Emotional.
Confused.
Desperate for an explanation.
He wasn’t getting her.
I packed a small bag.
Before leaving, I looked at our wedding photograph one final time.
Then I turned it facedown.
An hour later, Daniel came home.
May you like
And discovered that I was gone.
But the blue folder from his office was gone too.
