Chapter 5 - THE SATURDAY TOUR
Parker stared at the draft deed across Naomi’s conference table.
His attorney, Martin Keller, sat beside him. Clarissa and her family-law attorney, Rebecca Sloan, occupied the opposite side.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this packet,” Parker said.
Rebecca did not react.
“Did you discuss adding your name to Cedar Ridge?”
“Yes. Years ago.”
“Recently?”
“Ellie asked whether the house could secure a business loan. I told her Clarissa would never agree.”
“That is not an answer.”
Parker looked toward Clarissa.
“Mom’s finances are bad. Ellie was looking for options. I may have said adding me to the deed would make borrowing easier.”
“Did you tell them you would persuade me?”
“I said we could discuss it.”
Clarissa placed Nora Fields’s email on the table.
“Did you know they planned to hide the deed inside an insurance packet?”
“No.”
“Did you give Ellie copies of our insurance documents?”
Parker’s eyes shifted.
“She said she wanted to estimate event coverage.”
Rebecca marked something on her legal pad.
“So you provided documents relating to a house your sister did not own, for a business your wife had not approved, after being told the property might be used as collateral?”
“When you arrange the words like that, it sounds criminal.”
“They are arranged by date,” Rebecca said.
The signing certificate did not conclusively prove Parker had executed the LLC agreement. The code had gone to his phone, but Ellie knew his passcode and had borrowed the device during family gatherings.
The device location showed Alana’s address.
For two hours, Parker appeared less like a planner than a careless brother whose family had exploited access he freely gave them.
Clarissa hated how much she wanted that explanation to be true.
Then Leah Morgan produced photographs from her venue tour.
In one image, Parker stood at the barn entrance with Ellie and Alana. He was smiling as he held the door open for Leah’s parents.
The photograph had been taken on a Wednesday afternoon while Clarissa worked a double shift.
Parker studied it.
“I didn’t know they were customers.”
Leah had also saved a voice message.
Clarissa played it.
Parker’s voice was unmistakable.
“The property is debt-free, so we have flexibility. Once the family paperwork is finished, we’ll be able to guarantee dates well into next year.”
Parker leaned back.
“I was repeating what Ellie told me.”
“You told them the property was debt-free,” Clarissa said. “How did you think that information helped someone casually considering an event business?”
“I was trying to help my sister.”
“With my house.”
“I assumed we would talk before anything became binding.”
“Eight customers paid $38,400.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Martin Keller placed a hand near Parker’s elbow, warning him to stop volunteering explanations.
Rebecca changed the subject.
“Where did the company’s startup money come from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you transfer funds to Ellie or Alana this year?”
“I lent Mom some money.”
“How much?”
Parker did not answer.
Clarissa had always managed her personal account and household bills, while Parker handled a joint savings account opened after their marriage. He told her the money had been placed in a twelve-month certificate of deposit earning a higher rate.
She had seen quarterly totals, but not original bank statements. Parker downloaded summaries and added them to their shared tax folder.
Rebecca requested the complete records.
Parker objected.
“This started with what happened to Dustin. Now you’re tearing through every family transaction.”
“What happened to Dustin occurred because people were coming to inspect a business built around Clarissa’s property,” Rebecca said. “The finances are not separate.”
Outside the conference room, Clarissa found Parker by the elevator.
“Tell me the amount.”
He pressed the call button twice.
“It was a private loan to my mother.”
“From where?”
“My money.”
“How much?”
“Enough to help her.”
The elevator arrived.
Clarissa blocked neither the door nor his path.
“Did you send her ninety-two thousand dollars?”
Parker’s head lifted.
She had chosen the figure at random.
His expression answered before his mouth did.
The doors closed between them.
When Clarissa returned to the conference room, Naomi was speaking to a fraud investigator from the bank used by Cedar Ridge Family Events.
A second account had been identified during the customers’ payment disputes.
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Three months earlier, exactly $92,000 had entered that account.
The sender was the joint savings account belonging to Clarissa and Parker.
