Chapter 7 - The Partner Who Panicked
Marcus Wynn called me the next morning.
I answered before he could change his mind.
“We need to meet,” he said.
“Rachel comes.”
A pause.
“Fine.”
We met inside a crowded coffee shop where neither Daniel nor Lorraine would ever think to look.
Marcus appeared ten years older than he had at Thanksgiving.
His suit was wrinkled.
His eyes kept moving toward the windows.
Rachel sat beside me.
“Start talking.”
Marcus stared at his coffee.
“Daniel lost a major client eighteen months ago.”
“I know.”
“No. You know he told you they left.”
I frowned.
“What’s the difference?”
“They didn’t leave.”
He finally looked up.
“They fired us because Daniel promised performance results the company couldn’t deliver.”
My stomach tightened.
Marcus continued.
“To keep revenue looking stable, Daniel borrowed money.”
“How much?”
“Too much.”
“Number.”
“About eight hundred thousand total.”
Even Rachel went still.
Marcus rubbed his forehead.
“He kept telling me the next contracts would cover it.”
“And when they didn’t?”
“He borrowed again.”
I thought about every expensive dinner.
Every new suit.
Every time Daniel had called himself a founder.
“Why Larkin Family Holdings?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Daniel wanted to move money where creditors wouldn’t immediately connect it to him.”
“Using his mother.”
“Yes.”
“Did Lorraine know?”
“No.”
That answer mattered.
Not enough to erase six years of cruelty.
But enough to change what kind of woman I believed Lorraine was.
Rachel leaned forward.
“And the refinance?”
Marcus stared at me.
“That was supposed to solve everything.”
“With my house.”
“With the equity.”
“My equity.”
“Yes.”
I could hear the shame in his voice.
It did not make me sympathetic.
“You knew my signature was forged?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“And you stayed quiet.”
“I panicked.”
“You helped him steal.”
Marcus flinched.
Rachel stopped me before I stood.
“Why contact her now?”
Marcus looked directly at Rachel.
“Because Daniel is planning to blame all of it on me.”
That sounded exactly like Daniel.
Marcus reached into his briefcase and removed a flash drive.
“I copied emails.”
Rachel did not touch it.
“What emails?”
“Between Daniel and the lender. Daniel and the notary. Daniel and me.”
“Why would you incriminate yourself?”
“Because I’d rather tell the truth before Daniel decides what the truth is for me.”
I almost admired the sentence.
Almost.
Then Marcus said something stranger.
“There’s one thing you need to understand. Daniel didn’t only want the house because of the debt.”
“What else?”
“He was planning to move money out, restructure the company, and then file for divorce.”
The coffee shop suddenly sounded far away.
“He was leaving me?”
Marcus nodded.
“When?”
“After the refinance closed.”
My fingers went numb.
Daniel had accused me of destroying our marriage over oatmeal.
But he had been planning the end for months.
After stealing from my inheritance.
After forging my signature.
After trying to leverage my house.
Rachel finally took the flash drive.
“What’s the most important file on this?”
Marcus hesitated.
“There’s an audio recording from a meeting.”
“Between you and Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“What does he say?”
Marcus stared at me.
“He says you’ll never fight the refinance because you’re too afraid of being alone.”
The words hurt.
But not the way Daniel would have expected.
They did not break me.
They removed the last piece of guilt I had been carrying.
Marcus stood.
“There’s another reason I called.”
I looked at him.
“Daniel knows Lorraine talked to you.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
My phone buzzed.
A notification from the home security system.
Motion detected.
Front door.
I opened the live feed.
Daniel stood on the porch.
Two men were behind him carrying boxes.
Not out of the house.
Into it.
Then a third person stepped into view.
A real estate agent.
And I finally understood.
May you like
Daniel was not waiting for me to come home.
He was preparing to act as though I had never owned the house at all.
