Chapter 5 - SIX MILLION DOLLARS WAS MISSING BEFORE NATHAN GOT THERE
The first forensic review confirmed approximately $2.8 million in questionable payments tied to four recent vendors.
Three eventually connected to Cole.
One to Ryan’s former roommate.
Nathan benefited through several downstream accounts.
That was enough to establish the modern scheme.
Then the accountants kept looking backward.
Older vendors.
Older transfer structures.
Different names.
Similar methods.
The unexplained total passed four million.
Then five.
Then six.
Some of the suspicious activity began when Nathan was still in college.
He had not invented the system.
He had inherited it.
One of the oldest entities was called North Prairie Services.
Created in 1999.
Authorized signatories:
Charles Holt.
Daniel Ellison.
My father.
I stared at the audit report.
“No.”
The forensic accountant checked the original filing again.
Daniel Ellison.
My father had worked at Holt Industrial before I was born.
I knew that.
Charles always referred to him as “our accountant.”
My mother told me Dad left because he wanted less stress.
Then I found an old photograph in her storage boxes.
Three people stood outside a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Young Charles.
My father.
A woman I did not recognize.
Behind them, the sign read:
ELLISON-HOLT INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS
My father’s name came first.
I sat on the floor holding that photograph for almost an hour.
Corporate records told the rest.
Original ownership:
Daniel Ellison — 49%.
Charles Holt — 49%.
Rebecca Shaw — 2%.
My father had not been the accountant.
He had been a founder.
Years later, his shares disappeared through a settlement.
Rebecca disappeared from company history completely.
Charles became controlling owner.
The official internal narrative said Daniel had resigned after “accounting irregularities.”
When Charles was questioned, he gave investigators an answer that nearly broke me.
“Daniel stole from the company.”
I laughed when my attorney told me.
Then I stopped.
Because auditors had already found $1.1 million in unexplained transfers from 1999 through 2001.
Many carried my father’s initials.
D.E.
I thought about the man who once drove back to a grocery store because a cashier gave him twenty dollars too much change.
The man who taught me that the fastest way to lose control of money was to stop respecting small numbers.
My father.
A thief?
I rejected it immediately.
My attorney stopped me.
“You do not need your father to be innocent for what Nathan did to you to be criminal.”
I stared at her.
She continued.
“Two truths can exist.”
May you like
I hated her for saying it.
Because she was right.
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