Chapter 8 - NINETEEN PEOPLE
I didn’t sleep that night.
Every time I closed my eyes, I heard the same word.
Fine.
He had said it as casually as choosing a restaurant.
By morning, I was too tired to cry.
Nina found me sitting at the kitchen table.
“You don’t have to read the transcript again.”
“I know.”
I turned another page.
Knowing and stopping were different things.
That afternoon, Suarez asked whether I would meet two of the workers Daniel had identified.
Only if I wanted to.
Only with counsel.
I almost said no.
Then I remembered the first six hundred dollars I had given Marco.
A woman named Lorna arrived with a plastic folder held against her chest.
She had worked as a hotel housekeeper in Dubai.
Her husband, Ben, drove delivery trucks.
They had invested the money they saved for their daughter’s education.
Stella had promised a company-backed investment.
Marco had signed the introduction letter.
My professional license appeared in the attachment.
Lorna laid it in front of me.
“Was this you?”
“No.”
She searched my face.
Not angrily.
That would have been easier.
She looked exhausted.
“They said an accountant checked everything.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then why is your name here?”
I had no answer that could give her money back.
Nina explained the identity misuse.
Suarez explained what investigators were checking.
Lorna listened.
Then she closed the folder.
“My daughter thinks we changed our minds about college.”
Something inside me broke open.
“I’m sorry.”
Ben looked down at his hands.
“We weren’t trying to get rich.”
“I know.”
“We just wanted a little more time before our bodies gave out.”
After they left, I sat very still.
For weeks, the case had been about my husband.
My marriage.
My house.
Now there were nineteen families.
Probably more.
Suarez returned carrying a printed transfer chart.
The corporate theft and the investment money overlapped.
Same intermediaries.
Same destination accounts.
One account stood apart.
It had received a payment three days before Marco flew home.
The recipient was a local property broker.
Attached to the transfer was a scanned instruction.
I read it twice.
Then Nina read it.
May you like
The broker had been paid to arrange the urgent sale of my house.
And the scheduled completion date was Friday.
