Chapter 4 - SHE KNEW ABOUT THE MONEY
Daniel left Paige at the coffee shop with one instruction.
“Don’t delete anything.”
She laughed bitterly.
“I’m the only one who hasn’t.”
He drove to Schaumburg and walked into the office of Evan Marks, the CPA who had handled Mercer Route Systems since Daniel’s first profitable year.
Evan looked up from his monitor.
“What are you doing in Illinois?”
“I live here.”
“You told me Tuesday.”
“My flight changed.”
Evan smiled.
Then he saw Daniel’s face.
“What happened?”
Daniel put Paige’s photograph on the desk.
Evan’s smile disappeared.
“Where did you get that?”
“You recognize it.”
“Of course I recognize it. That’s the acquisition summary.”
“You mailed it to my house?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
Evan leaned back.
“The buyer’s counsel sent a signature packet in July.”
“To where?”
“Your office.”
“My office was closed for remodeling.”
Evan’s expression changed.
“Right.”
“What?”
“I called you about this.”
“When?”
“July seventeenth.”
Daniel remembered the call.
He had been in a conference room in Singapore, ten minutes before a negotiation that nearly killed the deal.
Evan had said something about courier paperwork.
Daniel had told him to handle it.
“You rerouted it.”
“To your home address.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Who signed?”
Evan turned to his computer.
A minute later, he found the tracking page.
Delivery accepted.
V. MERCER.
July 19.
Daniel stared at the date.
“Was the purchase price visible?”
“On page two.”
“Was it confidential?”
“Very.”
“Did Vanessa have any right to open it?”
“No.”
“Would she understand what it meant?”
Evan looked at Daniel.
“She’s married to you, isn’t she?”
Daniel sat down.
For months, Vanessa had been telling Eleanor the company was near bankruptcy.
For months, she had been telling Paige Daniel was unstable.
All while an eight-million-dollar acquisition summary sat somewhere inside their house.
Evan pushed the photograph back.
“What’s going on?”
Daniel told him enough.
Not everything.
The debit card.
The power-of-attorney document.
The missing money.
Evan removed his glasses.
“Jesus.”
“Did Vanessa ever call you?”
Evan paused.
Daniel caught it.
“When?”
“Twice.”
“What did she ask?”
“The first time she wanted to know whether the sale proceeds would be taxed as income.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“And the second?”
“She asked whether proceeds from a company owned before marriage were marital property.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I’m not a divorce attorney.”
Evan rubbed his forehead.
“She said she was asking for estate-planning reasons.”
“When was this?”
“August.”
The same month Vanessa paid Benton & Chase from Eleanor’s account.
Daniel stood.
Evan looked up.
“Daniel, don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’m going home.”
“That sentence worries me.”
“I’m not confronting her.”
“Good.”
“I need copies of everything involving the sale.”
“I can send them.”
“And I need to know which account the proceeds are going into.”
Evan frowned.
“The Mercer Capital account. Individual registration.”
“Has Vanessa ever had access?”
“No.”
“Keep it that way.”
Evan nodded.
Daniel left with a folder under his arm.
On the drive back to Naperville, he called a lawyer named Marissa Cole.
She had handled a contract dispute for his company six years earlier.
She now worked partly in business law and partly in complex asset protection.
“This isn’t a divorce consultation,” Daniel said.
“Yet?”
“I don’t know.”
“That means yes.”
He told her about the sale.
The house.
The power-of-attorney paperwork.
Eleanor’s missing money.
Marissa interrupted only once.
“When did you buy the house?”
“Three years before I married Vanessa.”
“Title?”
“My name only.”
“Mortgage?”
“Mostly paid down before marriage. We used joint funds for some payments afterward.”
“Any refinance?”
“No.”
“Any deed change?”
“No.”
“Do not sign one.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not move sale proceeds into a joint account.”
“Wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not buy a jointly titled property with that money until we talk.”
Daniel’s grip tightened on the steering wheel.
“Why?”
“Because separate property can become much harder to protect when you intentionally commingle or retitle it.”
Daniel thought of the sticky note.
ELEANOR FIRST.
DANIEL NEXT.
“What if someone knew that?”
Marissa went quiet.
“Then I’d want to know why.”
When Daniel got home, Vanessa was in the kitchen arranging white roses.
She looked up.
“You vanished.”
“I took Mom to urgent care.”
Her hand froze around a stem.
“For arthritis?”
“For bruises.”
Vanessa set down the flower.
“Daniel.”
“Then I had lunch.”
“With who?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re being weird.”
He smiled.
“Jet lag.”
She stared at him.
“What did the doctor say?”
“That she needs rest.”
“Great. Maybe now she’ll stop creating work for herself.”
Daniel hung his coat.
Vanessa followed him.
“We need to talk tonight.”
“About?”
“Us.”
“What about us?”
“The future.”
Daniel turned.
Vanessa’s expression softened.
“I’ve been thinking. If your business really is finished, maybe this is good.”
“How?”
“We start over.”
He waited.
“Sell this place,” she said. “Buy something smaller. Put everything together. No more his money, her money, business money. One life.”
Daniel looked toward the stairs.
“Everything together.”
“Yes.”
“And Mom?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“She needs a place with care.”
“She lives here.”
“That was temporary.”
“She sold her condo when I asked her to move in.”
“She can afford assisted living.”
“With what money?”
Vanessa’s eyes sharpened.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Interrogate me.”
Daniel smiled.
“I asked a question.”
She walked closer and put both hands on his chest.
“I carried this family while you chased that company across the world.”
“I know.”
“I deserve some security.”
“I know.”
Her shoulders relaxed.
“Then let’s make one decision together.”
“What decision?”
“Put whatever’s left from the company into our joint account.”
Daniel looked into her eyes.
Whatever’s left.
She knew the number.
He knew she knew.
And she was still pretending.
“I’ll think about it.”
Vanessa’s smile returned.
“That’s all I’m asking.”
That night, while she showered, Daniel opened the hall closet where they kept insurance documents and tax records.
The acquisition packet wasn’t there.
Neither was the power of attorney.
He checked the filing cabinet in the basement.
Then Vanessa’s desk.
Nothing.
As he stood to leave, he noticed the printer tray wasn’t fully closed.
Inside was a single sheet that had jammed behind the rollers.
Daniel pulled it free.
It was a Zillow printout.
A house in Hinsdale.
Five bedrooms.
Pool.
$2.35 million.
Across the top Vanessa had written:
OFFER AFTER FUNDS CLEAR.
Underneath that, in smaller writing:
TITLE BOTH NAMES.
Daniel turned the paper over.
There was another handwritten note.
CALL B&C — ASK HOW LONG BEFORE SEPARATE FUNDS BECOME MARITAL.
He stared at it until he heard the shower stop upstairs.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message from Paige.
I FOUND THE VIDEOS.
May you like
A second message appeared.
BUT GRANDMA MADE ME PROMISE NOT TO SHOW YOU ONE OF THEM.
