Chapter 7 - THE NUMBERS
Financial crimes investigators verified Mason’s documents within forty-eight hours.
The money had moved exactly as he claimed.
One point eight million dollars.
Possibly more.
The transactions used companies with innocent names.
Mercer Consulting.
Hillside Holdings.
DMR Services.
But each path eventually led back to my parents.
That was our first evidence that couldn’t be explained away as family drama.
Numbers didn’t care who cried louder.
Bank records didn’t care that my mother called herself the victim.
Signatures didn’t care that my father had spent my entire childhood teaching everyone to obey him.
The investigators discovered something even worse.
The withdrawals accelerated every year.
My grandmother’s trust had been slowly emptied.
Then I became pregnant.
Six days after I told my family, the withdrawals stopped.
Not because my parents suddenly became honest.
Because they realized my baby’s birth would trigger an audit.
Everything clicked into place.
The arguments.
The waiver.
Lauren’s anger.
My mother’s vitamins.
My father’s desperation.
They weren’t trying to protect the company from me.
They were trying to protect themselves from the audit.
Detective Ruiz returned to the hospital that evening.
“We recovered part of Lauren’s deleted messages.”
My hands went cold.
One message from my mother had been sent the morning of the barbecue.
YOU HAVE ONE CHANCE TO FIX THIS BEFORE HANNAH LOCKS US ALL OUT.
Lauren replied.
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?
Mom answered.
MAKE HER UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE’S COSTING US.
That wasn’t an instruction to attack me.
But it wasn’t innocent either.
Then Ruiz showed us another message.
It came from my father.
After the assault.
DELETE EVERYTHING.
I looked toward Ethan.
His jaw tightened.
“What about the envelope?”
“Still missing.”
Ruiz closed his folder.
“But Caleb remembered something.”
“What?”
“He says Lauren opened it before the argument.”
My heart began pounding.
“And?”
“He saw a check.”
“For how much?”
Ruiz met my eyes.
May you like
“One hundred thousand dollars.”
My parents had paid my sister the day she kicked my unborn daughter.
