Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN IN ACCOUNTING
Her name was Melissa Grant.
Daniel’s controller.
Forty-six years old.
Quiet.
Efficient.
The woman who had processed payroll for six years.
She came to Rachel’s office with an attorney.
Then she started talking.
Daniel had ordered her to create NorthBridge.
At first, he said it was for confidential sourcing.
Then fake invoices appeared.
Melissa questioned them.
Daniel threatened her job.
“He said the company would collapse if I didn’t cooperate.”
“How much did you move?” Rachel asked.
Melissa looked down.
“Just over four hundred thousand.”
“Where did it go?”
“Mostly to an account Daniel controlled.”
“Why Chloe’s name?”
“He said if anyone found it, it would look like personal spending.”
I almost admired the ugliness.
He had built a cover story inside a cover story.
If the fake vendor was discovered, he could frame the missing money as affair expenses.
Disgusting.
But clever.
“What was the money really for?” I asked.
Melissa hesitated.
“Sports betting.”
The room went quiet.
Daniel had been gambling.
Not casually.
Hundreds of thousands.
Losses.
Then loans to cover losses.
Then new losses.
The affair.
The fake trust.
The refinance.
The forged signature.
All of it sat on top of something he had hidden even longer.
He was addicted to gambling.
Chloe closed her eyes.
Diane started crying.
I felt nothing for a moment.
Then grief.
Not for the marriage as it was.
For the marriage I thought we had.
Melissa continued.
“He also borrowed from private lenders.”
“How private?”
Her attorney spoke.
“Unlicensed.”
Loan sharks.
That explained the panic.
Daniel was not trying to fund a new life.
He was trying to plug a hole that had no bottom.
“And the baptism?” I asked.
Melissa looked confused.
“What about it?”
“The deposit came from our savings.”
She nodded slowly.
“Daniel told me he needed the event.”
“Why?”
“He was meeting someone there.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
She gave us a name from his calendar.
Victor Shaw.
Rachel knew it.
Private equity.
Predatory acquisitions.
Daniel had planned to meet a buyer at Lily’s baptism.
While relatives toasted him, he was trying to sell part of the company.
Without telling his partners.
Without telling me.
Maybe even without telling the buyer about the hidden debt.
The betrayal kept growing.
Then my phone rang.
It was Robert.
His voice shook.
“Jennifer, Daniel is here.”
“Where?”
“At our house.”
“What does he want?”
“He says he needs Mom’s loan documents.”
“Do not give him anything.”
“I didn’t.”
A crash sounded through the phone.
Diane stood.
“Robert?”
Another crash.
Then Daniel shouted in the background.
“You all turned against me!”
May you like
The call disconnected.
We were already moving.
