Chapter 6 - MY FAMILY HAD MADE ME THE FALL GUY
For the first time that day, I understood why they needed me on an airplane.
Not just distracted.
Gone.
If I had boarded that Maui flight with Lily and the forged guardianship papers, I would have looked exactly like the person their documents claimed I was.
The relative receiving money.
The relative secretly caring for Lily.
The relative traveling across the country with her.
Everything pointed toward me.
Mark's attorney said it first.
“They were building corroboration.”
I stared at her through the video call.
“For what?”
“If investigators asked where the money went, Jessica could say she paid you to provide care. The forged invoices support that. The airport records would show Lily traveling with you.”
I felt sick.
“What about the note?”
“Jessica probably assumed you'd throw it away.”
She was right.
If I hadn't been furious enough to photograph it immediately, I might have crumpled it and stuffed it in a trash can.
The stupid pink sticky note was suddenly one of the most important things I owned.
Mark paced beside the window.
“Where did the three hundred thousand dollars come from?”
His attorney hesitated.
“Part of Jessica's support arrangement.”
I looked at him.
Mark rubbed his jaw.
“When we divorced, I agreed to pay substantial child support. Separate from that, I funded an educational and medical account for Lily.”
“How substantial?”
He told me.
I nearly choked.
Jessica received enough every month to pay for a comfortable house, private school, insurance, activities, and childcare without working.
The special account was meant for extraordinary expenses.
But reimbursements required documentation.
Documentation like the fake invoices bearing my company name.
“Who approved them?” I asked.
Mark's expression changed.
“That's what I want to know.”
His attorney answered.
“Jessica submitted them through a financial administrator.”
“Who?”
“Robert Carter.”
My father.
I stopped breathing for a second.
Mark closed his eyes.
“That explains it.”
“Dad was administering Lily's account?”
“Jessica requested him after the divorce. She said she wanted a neutral family member.”
I laughed bitterly.
Neutral.
The man who had just boarded a flight after helping abandon his granddaughter at an airport.
The investigator asked whether Dad had ever discussed my company.
“All the time,” I said. “He always wanted to know revenue, vendors, invoice software. I thought he was proud of me.”
Now every question had a different meaning.
What accounting platform do you use?
Do invoices automatically number themselves?
Do clients usually pay by ACH?
Do you keep old letterhead?
He hadn't been curious.
He'd been studying me.
My phone buzzed again.
This time it was an email from my company's accounting manager.
URGENT: DID YOU AUTHORIZE THESE?
Attached were three payment notifications.
Small transfers.
$500.
$750.
$1,000.
All deposited into my corporate account months earlier.
I had never noticed them among hundreds of client transactions.
The sender name was vague.
FAMILY SERVICES REIMBURSEMENT.
I called my accountant.
“What are these?”
“We're tracing them now.”
Mark's attorney swore softly.
Then she explained what the tiny transfers meant.
Someone hadn't merely fabricated invoices.
They had sent small amounts into my real business account to create a financial trail.
If anyone audited Jessica's claims, she could point to actual deposits.
My father had apparently understood exactly how to make the fraud look real.
Then my accountant found something worse.
“Brooke,” she said, “one of these transfers came from an account ending in 7712.”
Mark's face changed immediately.
“You recognize it?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
He looked toward Lily.
May you like
Then back at me.
“That is Lily's trust account.”
