Chapter 2 - THE FILE THEY THOUGHT WAS GONE
Daniel opened his briefcase.
“I believe Mrs. Whitaker deserves to see these.”
He placed a small USB drive on the table.
Mark stared at it.
Denise whispered:
“No.”
My mother folded her arms.
“Let her see.”
Daniel connected the drive to his laptop.
A spreadsheet appeared.
Hundreds of transactions.
Dates.
Amounts.
Vendor names.
Account numbers.
I recognized the formatting immediately.
It was the company's internal accounting system.
But something was wrong.
There were two sets of books.
One showed the business barely breaking even.
The other showed more than $900,000 in additional revenue.
I looked at Mark.
“What is this?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Daniel zoomed in.
“That's not what you told me last year.”
Mark's face tightened.
“You're lying.”
Daniel opened another folder.
Inside were scanned checks.
Several were made payable to companies I'd never heard of.
Then I saw a familiar address.
Denise's home.
I felt my stomach drop.
“What are those?”
“Payments,” Daniel said.
“For what?”
“Services that were never provided.”
Denise snapped:
“You have no proof.”
Daniel opened the invoices.
Each one had been approved by Mark.
His initials appeared on every page.
Mark stood abruptly.
“This is insane.”
I looked at him.
“Sit down.”
He stared at me.
I had never spoken to him that way.
Apparently, he noticed.
“You've been lying to me.”
“No.”
“You knew about the loan.”
“No.”
“You knew about the guarantees.”
He hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
I turned back to Daniel.
“What happens now?”
“The court has frozen several business accounts.”
Denise gasped.
“You can't do that.”
“The judge can.”
“You'll destroy us!”
Daniel looked at her calmly.
“You destroyed your own financial records.”
Silence.
Then my mother reached into her purse.
“There is something else.”
She placed an old folder on the table.
It was dated eight months earlier.
The same month I discovered I was pregnant.
My hands began trembling.
“Where did you get this?”
“Your husband's office.”
I looked at Mark.
“You brought this home?”
He didn't answer.
My mother opened it.
Inside was a document titled:
CONTINGENCY PLAN — GUARANTOR DEFAULT.
I read the first paragraph.
If Lena Whitaker becomes unable or unwilling to satisfy the obligation, all liability will be transferred to her personally.
My heart stopped.
“Why would they need a contingency plan for me?”
Daniel answered.
“Because they intended to make you the primary debtor.”
I looked at Mark.
“Even though I never agreed to the loan?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
Daniel turned the laptop around.
A payment schedule appeared.
The money wasn't used to purchase equipment.
It wasn't used for payroll.
It wasn't used for inventory.
It went to something called:
PROJECT HARBOR.
I frowned.
“What is Project Harbor?”
Nobody answered.
Then Denise whispered:
“Don't.”
I looked at her.
“Don't what?”
She turned toward Mark.
“You promised me.”
Mark looked terrified.
“What did you promise?”
My mother stood.
“That's the question we've been waiting for.”
Daniel opened another file.
The title made my blood run cold.
PROJECT HARBOR — LENA WHITAKER.
My own name.
Below it was a photograph of me.
Taken outside my doctor's office.
I stared at the screen.
Someone had been following me.
And the photograph had been taken three weeks before Lily was born.
I looked at Mark.
“Did you do this?”
He whispered:
“I wasn't supposed to.”
My mother stepped forward.
“Then who was?”
Mark looked at Denise.
May you like
And Denise finally said:
“Your father.”
