Chapter 10 - IRENE’S SECRET
I did not accuse Irene.
That mattered.
A week earlier, maybe I would have.
A lifetime of trusting my family had conditioned me to doubt the outsider first.
I was done making that mistake.
When Irene came home from the hospital two days later, I waited until she had rested.
Then I sat beside her in our living room.
“Robert called me.”
Her expression hardened.
“What did he want?”
“He said you accessed succession documents before Mom started pressuring you.”
Irene was silent.
My heartbeat increased.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“Why?”
She stood slowly and walked to a cabinet.
From it, she removed a folder.
“I was going to tell you after the merger.”
She handed it to me.
Inside were financial reports.
Copies of transfers.
Emails.
Ownership charts.
“Irene.”
“Look at the dates.”
I did.
The first document was almost seven months old.
“What am I looking at?”
“Payments leaving a trust connected to your mother.”
“That’s her money.”
“Some of it.”
Irene pointed toward several transfers.
“But these payments originated from an account that receives distributions belonging to multiple beneficiaries.”
I studied the records.
“How did you find this?”
“You asked me to help review the charitable foundation last year.”
I remembered.
Irene had worked in forensic accounting before we married.
She left the profession because constant travel exhausted her.
I had asked her to review our family foundation because expenses seemed unusually high.
“I found inconsistencies.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was making sure.”
She turned another page.
Thousands of dollars had been directed to shell consulting companies.
Then hundreds of thousands.
Then millions.
Evelyn Marsh appeared repeatedly.
So did a company linked to Robert.
My mother was not merely trying to seize future control.
She was trying to hide the past.
“How much?”
I asked.
“I can prove at least six million moved improperly.”
I stared at her.
“And possibly?”
“Twelve.”
The room went silent.
“That’s why you accessed the succession documents.”
“Yes.”
“I needed to understand who had authority over the accounts.”
“Mom found out?”
“Eventually.”
Everything changed again.
My mother’s motive had not started with Irene’s pregnancy.
It had started when Irene discovered the money.
The pregnancy only raised the stakes.
I sat back.
“Robert knows.”
“He must.”
“Why keep this from me?”
Irene’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because every time I found something, your family became nicer to you.”
I frowned.
“Explain.”
“Your mother visited more.”
“Carla started calling you every day.”
“Robert suddenly invited you to lunch.”
“They were surrounding you.”
I looked down.
She was right.
I had interpreted it as family becoming closer after the pregnancy announcement.
It had been containment.
Irene sat beside me.
“I needed proof strong enough that they couldn’t convince you I was paranoid.”
The sentence hurt because she had reason to believe that.
“I would have believed you.”
She looked at me.
“Would you?”
May you like
I could not answer immediately.
And that was answer enough.
