Chapter 9 - THE SECOND ACCOUNT
Three weeks after David’s arrest, the investigators found another account.
This one was worse.
It contained money from my inheritance.
Not Lily’s trust.
Mine.
For years, David had insisted that his businesses were thriving.
Luxury cars.
Private clubs.
Investment dinners.
The image of endless success.
It was mostly debt.
The companies were collapsing.
He had borrowed against properties.
Refinanced our estate twice.
Hidden losses from me.
Lily’s trust had not funded expansion.
It had kept David’s life from falling apart.
Agent Cole explained it inside my attorney’s office.
“He was covering business losses with trust money.”
“How long?”
“Eighteen months that we can prove.”
“And Julianne?”
“Some money went directly to her company.”
“Did she spend it?”
“Yes.”
My jaw tightened.
Cole continued.
“But we currently have evidence supporting her claim that David misrepresented the source.”
That did not make her innocent of everything.
But it changed the question.
Then Cole handed me another statement.
A transfer of $300,000.
Destination.
Vance Strategic Holdings.
From there, $275,000 moved into a brokerage account.
David had used Lily’s money to cover a margin call.
Twenty-five thousand remained.
Then that money paid for something else.
An engagement ring.
I stared at the invoice.
Fourteen-carat diamond.
Purchased eight weeks before the Bahamas trip.
Recipient information.
Julianne Hart.
I almost smiled.
“He was going to marry her.”
Cole nodded.
“It appears so.”
I looked at the amount.
Eighty-seven thousand dollars.
Paid partly from funds that originated in Lily’s trust.
The betrayal had layers.
But by then, anger no longer surprised me.
I felt tired.
Cole seemed to notice.
“There’s one thing you should understand.”
“What?”
“David’s defense is shifting.”
“To what?”
“They’re claiming you knew about the transfers.”
I laughed.
“Of course they are.”
“They may argue you authorized them verbally.”
“Can they prove that?”
“No.”
“Then let them try.”
Cole hesitated.
“They have something else.”
He handed me a printed email.
The sender appeared to be me.
The recipient was David.
The email read.
Move whatever you need from Lily’s account.
We can replace it later.
My stomach dropped.
“I never wrote this.”
Cole nodded.
“We believe that.”
“Then where did it come from?”
He pointed to the metadata.
The email had been created from an IP address inside our house.
On a night I had been in Boston at a medical conference with Lily.
Someone had accessed my old laptop.
My laptop that had remained inside David’s office.
It was not merely theft anymore.
David had been building evidence against me while stealing from our daughter.
May you like
And he had started long before Julianne.
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