Chapter 6 - MONDAY MONEY
“Call Beth,” Emily said.
“Your office manager?” Dana asked.
“She knows where everything is. Including what Ryan thinks he deleted.”
Beth Turner answered from the company parking lot. She had spent Sunday evening watching a wedding video spread through messages from former employees.
“Tell me it's real,” she said when she saw Emily.
“It's real.”
Beth covered her mouth. Then she got angry.
“That son of a bitch made us contribute to your memorial flowers.”
Emily looked down.
“I'm sorry.”
“Don't you dare apologize to me.”
Dana asked Beth to preserve the company files she was authorized to access and send the sale correspondence. By noon, the buyer's attorney had received notice that Emily disputed the signatures and the transaction.
The closing stopped.
It should have felt like winning.
Instead, Beth called back in tears.
“Payroll's short. Ryan moved the operating money Friday. We've got people expecting checks.”
Emily pushed her breakfast tray away.
“How short?”
Beth told her.
She knew those employees. Marisol, who worked nights while her husband had dialysis. Kevin, who took every school holiday off to stay with his twins. People whose groceries depended on a company Ryan had treated like a personal wallet.
“Can we stop him moving anything else?” I asked Dana.
“We're working on emergency orders. I won't promise the money's still there.”
Emily asked for a pencil. Her fingers slipped twice before she held it.
“Tell Beth to make a list. Who's due what. I'll call the customers myself if I have to.”
“You need rest,” I said.
“I need something that's mine to still exist.”
I shut up and moved the paper closer.
That afternoon, she transferred to a hospital for an independent assessment and a new rehabilitation plan. Rosa stayed after her shift to help pack.
Inside Emily's nightstand was a stack of birthday cards, letters, and crayon drawings.
All from Lily.
All opened.
None given to Emily until Rosa found them while checking an inventory discrepancy.
“Price said her husband collected personal mail,” Rosa told us. “Yesterday I found this bundle in the locked belongings cabinet. Your card had a phone number.”
Emily lifted a picture of three stick figures beside a house.
On the back, Lily had written: PLEASE GET BETTER SO DADDY CAN STOP BEING MAD.
Beth sent the first batch of financial records an hour later.
Among the payments was a monthly consulting fee to Nolan Price.
May you like
The description was only two words.
Family management.
