Chapter 5 - RACHEL DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT NOAH
Rachel called me at seven in the morning.
I almost declined.
Then she sent:
PLEASE. THIS IS ABOUT NOAH.
I answered.
“What?”
Her voice shook.
“Daniel told me you canceled Zurich.”
“Why did you think Noah was going?”
Silence.
“You knew?”
“I knew there was a fourth reservation.”
“Who did you think it was?”
“You.”
There it was.
Daniel had lied to both of us.
“He told me you agreed to bring Noah because the bank needed all beneficiaries physically present.”
My stomach tightened.
“I am not a beneficiary.”
“What?”
“The trust excludes me.”
Silence.
Long.
Then Rachel whispered:
“What trust?”
I almost laughed.
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
“The Carter Family Opportunity Trust.”
Nothing.
“Rachel?”
“I’ve never heard that name.”
Now I believed her fear.
“Did Daniel tell you the townhouse was going into a trust?”
“He said it would be placed in a family holding structure for tax efficiency.”
“Whose family?”
She did not answer.
Then:
“He said after your divorce…”
My chest tightened.
“After what divorce?”
Another silence.
“He said you two had already agreed.”
Of course.
“What exactly did he tell you?”
Rachel began crying.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
“He said Noah would live mostly with you but travel with us sometimes.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“What?”
“He said you wanted a flexible parenting arrangement because you planned to return to work full-time.”
No.
Absolutely not.
“He said you didn’t want another child after Noah.”
That was irrelevant and still insulting.
Then she said:
“He told me you knew about me.”
I closed my eyes.
Standard.
“He told me you had an agreement.”
“We did not.”
“I’m sorry.”
I did not comfort her.
She had accepted a townhouse from a married man.
But something else mattered more.
“Rachel, did Daniel ever tell you Lily was his daughter?”
The question came out before I could stop it.
Rachel went silent.
Then:
“No.”
Interesting.
“Is she?”
“No.”
Immediate.
Certain.
“Her father died when she was two.”
I exhaled.
One mystery eliminated.
“What did Daniel mean when he put her on executive family benefits?”
“He said company leadership had special dependent exceptions.”
“Did he tell you he used my name?”
Silence.
“No.”
There.
Rachel had not known everything.
Then she said:
“Sophie, I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“The townhouse.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about it?”
“Daniel told me I owned it.”
“You don’t?”
“I checked after yesterday.”
She sounded sick.
“Morgan Residential Holdings owns it.”
“Yes.”
“He made me sign papers.”
“What papers?”
“I thought they transferred the LLC to me.”
“Did they?”
“No.”
Rachel started crying harder.
“Daniel owns seventy percent.”
Of course.
“And the other thirty?”
She paused.
“Someone named Robert Halston.”
I went still.
The CEO.
“No.”
“I have the operating agreement.”
“Send it to your lawyer, not me.”
“I already did.”
Good.
Then Rachel whispered:
“I don’t think Robert knows.”
Neither did I.
Forty minutes later, Claire confirmed it.
Robert Halston’s signature appeared on the LLC agreement.
But Robert told company counsel he had never invested in Morgan Residential.
His name had been used.
Now Daniel had apparently forged the CEO’s signature too.
That changed the investigation completely.
Then Halston Legal found the funding source for the remaining townhouse purchase.
Not HCT.
Not Daniel.
A corporate real-estate reserve account.
May you like
Daniel had redirected nearly $900,000 of company money into a house occupied by his mistress.
And Robert Halston’s fake ownership interest had been added to make the transaction look authorized.
