Chapter 4 - The Missing Account
Melissa brought in a forensic accountant named Daniel Cho.
Daniel didn’t smile much.
He also didn’t waste words.
After listening to the recordings, he asked for every financial document from my divorce.
Three hours later, he tapped a page with his pencil.
“There.”
I leaned forward.
“What?”
“Julian’s partnership income dropped twenty-eight percent during the divorce.”
“He said business was bad.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Was it?”
“I don’t know.”
“It wasn’t.”
He turned his laptop around.
Public filings showed Julian’s firm had its most profitable year in a decade.
“So where did his money go?”
“That’s what I’m asking.”
Over the next week Daniel followed transfers through entities with names that sounded intentionally boring.
Vance Consulting.
JV Holdings.
Westbridge Management.
Then Mercer Administrative Services.
That one mattered.
Daniel pointed at the screen.
“Payments went into this entity before financial disclosure.”
“How much?”
“At least $312,000 that should have been disclosed as income.”
I stared at him.
He continued.
“That’s what I can document from the divorce period.”
“And the other recordings?”
His expression hardened.
“That’s more complicated.”
On one file, Julian and Victoria argued about $1.8 million tied to a client settlement reserve.
Victoria said, “You promised it would be replaced before anyone noticed.”
Julian responded:
“It will.”
Melissa immediately contacted an ethics attorney.
Then the court.
Quietly.
I wanted to confront Julian.
Melissa stopped me.
“No.”
“He lied under oath.”
“I know.”
“He starved us while hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“I know.”
“Noah needed braces. I put them on a credit card.”
“I know.”
“And he told me to become financially independent.”
Melissa’s voice softened.
“That is exactly why you do not warn him.”
So I stayed quiet.
Then Julian called.
Not texted.
Called.
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“Did Noah find anything of mine?”
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m asking a simple question.”
“And I’m asking why.”
Silence.
Then:
“There was a recorder.”
I looked through the window.
Noah was outside shooting baskets.
“Why do you suddenly care about a recorder you lost two years ago?”
“I didn’t lose it.”
My heart thumped.
“What?”
“I accidentally packed it with Noah’s stuff.”
He knew.
Somehow, he knew.
“Did he find it?”
Julian asked.
“I have to go.”
“Rachel.”
I hung up.
Thirty seconds later he called again.
Then again.
Then came a text.
THAT DEVICE CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL CLIENT INFORMATION. RETURN IT IMMEDIATELY.
I forwarded the message to Melissa.
She replied with four words.
DO NOT RESPOND. CALL ME.
Five minutes later, someone knocked on my front door.
Hard.
I looked through the peephole.
Victoria stood outside.
May you like
Alone.
And she was crying.
