Chapter 10 - THE MAN SHE CHOSE OVER HER DAUGHTER
Derek Shaw had not been rescuing Jessica.
He had been using her.
That became clear within hours.
Investigators traced the money backward.
Derek had met Jessica at a charity gala eighteen months earlier.
Within weeks, he was helping her “invest” money.
Within months, he was convincing her that Mark had unfairly controlled her finances during their marriage.
Then the withdrawals from Lily's trust began.
Small at first.
Then larger.
Jessica created fake expenses.
Dad approved them.
Mom helped create supporting documents.
And Derek moved the money.
Some went into luxury travel.
Some funded a business that barely existed.
More than half had been routed through accounts tied to offshore entities.
When investigators searched the charter reservation, they discovered something humiliating.
Only three passengers had confirmed payment.
Jessica.
Mom.
Dad.
Derek had never purchased his seat.
He had reserved it.
Then canceled it shortly before their flight left Atlanta.
He wasn't meeting them in Orlando.
He was already gone.
“Gone where?” I asked.
Mark's attorney shook her head.
“They're working on it.”
Jessica had abandoned her daughter to run away with a man who had apparently abandoned Jessica first.
The irony would have been satisfying if Lily weren't sitting ten feet away building a tower from plastic blocks.
Mark watched her quietly.
“I should've seen this.”
“Seen what?”
“How unstable things had become.”
“You weren't inside Jessica's house.”
“She kept telling the court I was controlling.”
“And we believed her.”
The confession came out before I could soften it.
Mark looked at me.
I continued.
“My parents believed her. I believed her. Every time you complained about money or schedules, Jessica told us you were punishing her.”
Mark nodded slowly.
“She was good at that.”
“I owe you an apology.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
He looked toward Lily.
“None of this is about me winning an argument from three years ago.”
That answer told me more about Mark than anything Jessica had ever said.
Late that afternoon, his attorney received another update.
Investigators had recovered emails from Derek.
One contained a spreadsheet.
Columns of names.
Account numbers.
Projected balances.
Lily's trust was there.
So was my business.
But my family wasn't Derek's only target.
There were four other women listed.
Each apparently divorced from wealthy husbands.
Each with access to family-controlled assets.
Derek had been running the same scheme repeatedly.
Jessica hadn't met a successful entrepreneur.
She had met a professional predator.
And Dad had helped him.
Then investigators opened one attachment from Jessica's old phone.
It was a photograph.
Jessica and Derek stood beside each other.
Behind them was Dad.
All three were holding champagne.
The timestamp was fourteen months earlier.
Months before Jessica claimed she had met Derek.
I stared at it.
“She's been lying about when they met.”
Mark's attorney enlarged the photograph.
There was a banner on the wall behind them.
CARTER FINANCIAL ADVISORY - PRIVATE CLIENT DINNER.
My father's old consulting business.
May you like
Derek hadn't found Jessica.
Dad had introduced them.
