Chapter 7 - The Story Behind the Money.
Andrew finally agreed to enter the house after Megan told him the conversation would be recorded.
He sat at the dining table.
I sat across from him.
The photographs of Natalie remained between us.
He avoided looking at them.
Daniel placed his phone on the table.
“Start talking.”
Andrew rubbed both hands across his face.
The missing money had begun eighteen months earlier.
His company collected deposits from contractors purchasing large orders.
Andrew discovered that some payments remained temporarily unassigned while projects were being processed.
He and Vanessa had access to the system.
At first, he moved twenty thousand dollars.
He claimed it was temporary.
He had lost money on cryptocurrency.
He intended to replace it after his commission check.
Then another investment failed.
He moved forty thousand more.
Soon he was shifting payments between accounts to hide the shortages.
Vanessa eventually discovered what he was doing.
According to Andrew, she helped him conceal it.
According to the documents Daniel had obtained, Vanessa claimed Andrew threatened to blame everything on her unless she cooperated.
I did not know which version was true.
I only knew Andrew had been stealing.
“Where did the money go?”
He looked ashamed.
“Investments.”
“All of it?”
“No.”
His eyes moved toward the photographs.
Rebecca whispered something furious.
I stayed still.
“How much did you spend on Natalie?”
Andrew did not answer.
“How much?”
“Maybe sixty thousand.”
My stomach turned.
Trips.
Hotels.
Jewelry.
Restaurants.
The cottage.
My husband had been spending stolen money to maintain the fantasy life he created for another woman.
Then came the commercial building.
Andrew believed buying property would solve everything.
Natalie’s physical therapy practice was looking for a new location.
Andrew created Parker-Morgan Property Holdings and arranged the purchase.
He expected rental payments from the clinic to help repay what he had taken.
But the bank demanded more collateral.
That was when he forged my signature.
“That loan still didn’t cover your shortage.”
“I know.”
“So you planned to take my inheritance.”
“I planned to borrow it.”
“Stop using that word.”
Andrew looked down.
“You don’t borrow from someone without telling them.”
He started crying.
For years, his tears would have destroyed my anger.
That day, they did not.
“I was scared.”
“So you destroyed my life instead?”
“I thought I could fix it.”
“You were planning a new life with Natalie.”
“No.”
Rebecca slammed her palm against the table.
“You were going to propose to my daughter tonight.”
Andrew stared at her.
I leaned forward.
“Were you?”
He whispered, “Yes.”
The word was surprisingly quiet.
But it ended my marriage louder than any scream could have.
I stood.
Andrew reached toward me.
“Claire.”
“Don’t.”
“I love you.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
“You love what I protected you from.”
He frowned.
“You love that I paid the bills when your income dropped.”
“You love that I cared for your mother.”
“You love my inheritance.”
“You love my credit.”
“You love my house.”
“But you do not get to call any of that love anymore.”
He began crying harder.
Then Megan interrupted.
“There’s another issue.”
She had been reading the LLC documents.
“What?”
She turned the page toward us.
The company had recently amended its ownership declaration.
Andrew held fifty-one percent.
A second person held forty-nine percent.
It was not me.
The name listed was Lorraine Parker.
I looked toward the front window.
Lorraine had claimed Andrew deceived her.
Yet six weeks earlier, she had signed paperwork making herself his business partner.
Andrew stared at the document.
“She wasn’t supposed to know about that.”
I laughed once.
“You two really are perfect for each other.”
Then Daniel spoke.
“There’s something else.”
He showed me a property search.
Lorraine had sold her Syracuse house eleven months earlier.
She had received approximately three hundred thousand dollars.
I stared at the screen.
Lorraine had spent two years telling us she could not afford to live alone.
Yet she had secretly sold her own home.
“What happened to her money?”
Daniel looked at Andrew.
Andrew looked at the floor.
And suddenly I understood.
May you like
Lorraine had not moved into my house because she was helpless.
She had moved in because she and her son had been building something behind my back.
