Chapter 5 - The Account With No Name.
Emily searched Michael's banking app while he stood across the study pretending the answer might somehow disappear.
A hidden business account appeared under Carter Development Partners.
The balance was $146,820.37.
Emily stared at the number.
"You said you didn't know how much was left."
Michael spoke quietly.
"I didn't know the exact balance."
"You knew enough to hide it."
She opened the transaction history.
Deposits from the commercial credit line had been followed by payments to contractors, permit offices, Lauren, Michael, and several companies Emily did not recognize.
One transfer caught her attention.
$38,000 to Northstar Advisory LLC.
Another identical transfer appeared three weeks later.
"What is Northstar Advisory?"
Michael looked at the screen.
"Consultants."
Evelyn stood behind Emily.
"For what?"
"Property strategy."
Emily clicked the transaction details.
The recipient account ended in 4409.
She copied the company name into a search bar.
The website was almost empty, with a stock photo of a skyline and no employee list.
The state business registry showed Northstar Advisory had been formed seven months earlier.
Registered agent: Lauren Hayes.
Emily laughed without humor.
"Your consultant is my sister."
Michael rubbed his jaw.
"It's her LLC."
"So the seventy-two-thousand-dollar consulting fee wasn't enough."
"Some of that money covered vendor advances."
"Then why route it through her private company?"
Michael did not answer.
Emily opened another tab and searched the address associated with Northstar.
It was a mailbox rental store downtown.
She felt anger give way to something more useful.
Clarity.
"I'm freezing the joint accounts tonight."
Michael straightened.
"You can't just do that."
"Watch me."
"The mortgage comes out Monday."
"Then you should have thought about Monday before you moved fifty-two thousand dollars out of our savings."
Michael's voice rose.
"That money is coming back."
"From a project secured by property you pledged without my consent?"
Emily opened her laptop.
She changed the passwords on every personal account she controlled.
She removed Michael as an authorized user from two credit cards.
She downloaded statements going back a year.
Michael watched her with growing panic.
"You're going to destroy the project."
Emily looked up.
"You already destroyed the part that mattered."
Lauren called again.
Emily answered but did not put her on speaker this time.
"What?"
Lauren's voice sounded shaky.
"Michael says you're freezing everything."
Emily glanced at him.
He had texted Lauren from his watch.
"You two are efficient when you're protecting money."
"Emily, listen to me."
"I've been listening all night."
"If the bank sees instability, they can call the line."
"Good."
"No, not good."
Lauren's fear sounded genuine.
"If they call it now, we can't cover it."
"Then perhaps you shouldn't have borrowed it."
"Your trust interest is attached."
"Illegally."
"That may take months to prove."
Emily went still.
Lauren had just said the thing nobody else wanted to say.
Even if the authorization was fraudulent, the bank might treat it as valid until lawyers untangled the facts.
The fight could freeze Emily's inheritance, damage her credit, and drag her through litigation.
"Who prepared the paperwork?"
Lauren was silent.
"Who?"
"A lawyer Michael found."
Michael shook his head fiercely.
"Don't drag him into this."
Emily covered the phone.
"Him?"
Michael realized his mistake.
Emily returned to Lauren.
"Name."
Lauren finally whispered it.
"Darren Pike."
Evelyn reacted instantly.
"Pike?"
Emily looked at her.
"You know him?"
Evelyn's face hardened.
"He represented Michael's father years ago."
Michael looked away.
Emily remembered little about Michael's father, Thomas, except that he had died when Michael was twenty-seven after a long estrangement from Evelyn.
"Represented him for what?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Business trouble."
"What kind of business trouble?"
"The kind that cost us our house."
Michael spoke sharply.
"That has nothing to do with this."
Evelyn looked at her son.
"It has everything to do with this if you used the same man."
Emily asked Lauren for Darren Pike's contact information.
Lauren refused at first.
Emily told her the next call would be to the bank's fraud department.
Lauren sent the number immediately.
Emily called Darren.
It was nearly ten thirty at night, but he answered after three rings.
"Pike."
"This is Emily Carter."
Silence.
Then his voice became guarded.
"Ms. Carter."
"You prepared documents using my signature for Cedar Ridge."
"I can't discuss client matters."
"Am I your client?"
"No."
"Then you used my signature in documents for someone else."
Darren exhaled.
"I think this conversation should happen with counsel present."
Emily felt the first flash of satisfaction all night.
He was afraid.
"Good idea."
"Ms. Carter, before you do anything rash, understand that the transaction was represented to me as authorized by all parties."
"By Michael?"
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
Darren lowered his voice.
"There is something you need to see before you accuse anyone publicly."
Emily frowned.
"What?"
"An email sent from your personal address approving the collateral."
Emily looked at Michael.
He had stopped breathing normally.
"I never sent that email."
Darren replied with five words that changed the direction of the night.
May you like
"Then someone had your password."
THE THURSDAY CALL
