Chapter 9 - Lorraine Chose a Side
Lorraine apologized the next morning.
Not the kind of apology she used to give when she wanted everyone to stop being angry.
No “if.”
No “but.”
No explanation about how difficult her life had been.
“I treated you badly,” she said. “For years.”
I sat beside her hospital bed.
“Yes.”
“I believed Daniel because believing him made my life easier.”
That was more honest than I expected.
“He told me you controlled him. That you thought you were better than our family because you had money.”
“I never thought that.”
“I know.”
She looked toward the window.
“I liked blaming you.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because before you married him, Daniel called me every day.”
I said nothing.
“Afterward, he called when he needed something. I decided you had taken my son away instead of admitting my son had grown into someone who used people.”
That sentence cost her something.
I could see it.
It did not erase the mornings she insulted me.
The holidays she ruined.
The years she called service “duty” whenever I performed it.
But accountability was not nothing.
Lorraine signed a statement for Rachel.
She explained Daniel had lied about my invitation.
That she had never created Larkin Family Holdings.
That she had never authorized Daniel to transfer money through an account connected to her identity.
Then she added something I did not know.
“I never received that money.”
Rachel looked up.
“None of it?”
“Not one dollar.”
“Did Daniel ever ask permission to use your tax information?”
“No.”
The shell company was worse than we thought.
Daniel had not simply hidden money using Lorraine’s name.
He had used her identity too.
When we left the hospital, Thomas called.
He had traced more payments.
Some went to Northbridge Ventures.
Some paid Daniel’s business debt.
But almost ninety-two thousand dollars had gone somewhere else.
An account at a private bank.
“What’s the account name?” I asked.
Thomas read it.
“Hale Reserve 17.”
Daniel’s name was not publicly attached.
But the mailing address belonged to a luxury condominium downtown.
I knew that building.
Daniel had taken me there once for a client dinner.
Except there had been no client dinner.
He told me the event was canceled after we arrived.
We had gone home.
Now I wondered whether he had simply wanted to check the building without explaining why.
Rachel requested documents through the appropriate legal process.
Meanwhile, Lorraine was discharged.
Daniel arrived to collect her.
She refused to leave with him.
I watched from ten feet away.
His expression hardened.
“Mom, stop being ridiculous.”
“I’m staying with your sister.”
“Aunt Marianne doesn’t have space.”
“She made space.”
Daniel stared at me.
“This is you.”
Lorraine answered before I could.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“This is me finally listening.”
He laughed bitterly.
“She abandoned you.”
“She left a house where she was being treated like a servant.”
“You’re defending her now?”
“I’m telling the truth now.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Lorraine’s shoulders straightened.
“For once, neither do you.”
He walked away without saying goodbye.
That night Thomas called again.
The private bank finally connected Hale Reserve 17 to a purchasing contract.
“What did he buy?” I asked.
Thomas sent me the document.
A condominium.
Seven hundred thousand dollars.
The down payment had come from the secret account.
Buyer listed through another company.
But the beneficiary was Daniel.
“He bought himself an apartment?” I whispered.
“Not exactly,” Thomas said.
I scanned the contract.
There were two approved residents listed.
Daniel Hale.
And a woman named Natalie Brooks.
I knew Natalie.
She was Daniel’s company controller.
The woman who had processed almost every suspicious transfer.
But Thomas had found something even more disturbing than an affair.
Natalie’s name appeared on the financing documents for my house too.
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Next to one handwritten note:
SPOUSE SIGNATURE WILL BE HANDLED.
