Chapter 14 - SYLVIA’S SECRET ACCOUNT
Sylvia had always presented herself as financially dependent on David.
She claimed her late husband left debts.
She complained about the cost of maintaining her house.
She expected David to pay for vacations, renovations, and dinners.
The investigation revealed that Sylvia controlled more than twelve million dollars.
The money came from private settlement payments connected to David’s cases.
Whenever a woman lost property or custody, funds moved through shell companies.
Some went to Keene.
Some went to Keller.
The largest share went to Sylvia.
She had not merely encouraged David.
She had financed the entire system.
Her Christmas house was purchased through a company connected to Marissa Cole’s former husband.
The kitchen where she pushed me had been renovated with money taken from another woman’s business.
Even the chandelier above the dining table had been purchased after David helped a client seize his wife’s inheritance.
Sylvia’s luxury had been built from other women’s losses.
Prosecutors offered her a deal.
If she testified against David, they would reduce the conspiracy charges.
She accepted immediately.
During a recorded interview, Sylvia described her son without affection.
“David always wanted status.”
“I gave him a method.”
She claimed the idea began after David lost an early custody case.
A frightened mother testified convincingly.
The judge believed her.
David became furious.
Sylvia told him the problem was not the evidence.
It was the woman’s credibility.
“If people distrust the woman,” Sylvia explained, “they distrust everything she says.”
From then on, they attacked credibility before facts.
Keene supplied diagnoses.
Keller controlled complaints.
David used the courts.
Sylvia collected money.
“What was Anna’s role?” the prosecutor asked.
Sylvia looked directly toward the camera.
“She was supposed to produce David’s child.”
“Afterward, he would divorce her.”
“Why?”
“She lacked ambition.”
“She embarrassed him.”
“She refused to understand family duty.”
The prosecutor placed the Christmas recording before her.
“You pushed a pregnant woman.”
“She disobeyed me.”
The answer destroyed any sympathy she hoped to gain.
Sylvia also admitted she knew who my father was before Christmas.
I stared at Naomi.
“How?”
“David discovered it six months after the wedding.”
“He never told you.”
The investigation found a private background report hidden in David’s office.
It confirmed my identity.
David had known for nearly three years.
He did not laugh during the phone call because he believed my father was imaginary.
May you like
He laughed because he believed I would never dare call him.
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