Chapter 6
“Three weeks,” Dad said.
I waited.
“Our accountant flagged unusual payments while we were preparing the share transfer. I asked Mara to review them. I didn’t know Celeste’s name was connected until the day before I came home.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted facts before I put you in the middle of it.”
“I was already in the middle. I work there.”
“You’re right.”
He did not try to soften it. I appreciated that, even as anger rose in me.
“Did you give me the company because you thought Celeste was taking money?”
“No. The transfer plan began last year. The review made me complete it sooner. I should have told you that part when I handed you the folder.”
I looked at him across the desk.
“I need you to tell me difficult things before you decide I can’t handle them.”
“I will.”
We sat quietly. From the other room came the sound of Brianna making tea. She had asked to stay until Mara finished speaking with the accountant.
Dad’s phone rang.
It was Celeste.
He put it on speaker after telling her I was with him.
“You’ve turned Brianna against me,” she said.
“She brought us records,” Dad replied. “I haven’t asked her to stop loving you.”
“She took things from my closet.”
“Your attorney can discuss how they were found with Mara. I want to know what the ledger records.”
“I wrote down vendor costs. Daniel kept changing the totals.”
“Then give us the original invoices.”
“I will. But I won’t sit in the same room as your daughter while she calls me a thief.”
I leaned toward the phone.
“I haven’t called you that. I’ve asked who did the work we paid for.”
Celeste went silent.
Dad said, “We’ll let the records answer it.”
After the call, Brianna appeared in the doorway. She had heard enough to know her mother was furious with her.
“Can I go home?” she asked.
“You can stay here tonight,” Dad said. “Or with Emma, if you’d be more comfortable.”
Brianna chose my apartment.
She slept on my couch. Before turning out the light, she asked whether I remembered the Christmas photograph.
“I remember you making us put the sweaters on,” I said.
“Mom bought them. She was happy that day.”
“I remember.”
“I don’t know how she became the person who threw your plate.”
I didn’t know either. I only knew it had happened, and Brianna had seen it.
The next day, Mara called us into the office. Daniel had supplied emails from Celeste instructing him to approve two Northstar invoices without the usual review. Celeste had written that the event costs were confidential.
Another email showed Daniel asking why a payment was larger than the agreed fee. Celeste replied that the difference was for “family expenses.”
“Whose expenses?” Dad asked.
“We’re tracing the account,” Mara said.
The money had not gone to Brianna. She showed us her bank records voluntarily because she was terrified someone would think she had benefited.
I told her she didn’t have to prove her innocence to me. Mara still checked the records to establish where the money went.
By the end of the week, we had an answer.
A company called Meridian House had received part of the payments. Its listed contact was Celeste’s brother, Paul, whom I had met only twice. He lived in another state and had never worked for Dad’s company.
Dad called him with Mara present.
Paul said he had helped Celeste invest in a property. He claimed she told him the funds were hers.
“How much did you receive?” Mara asked.
He gave a figure lower than the bank records showed.
When Mara told him the actual amount, he stopped speaking.
He agreed to send his documents through an attorney.
That evening, Dad asked Celeste to live elsewhere while the investigation continued. She had already been staying with a friend since Brianna brought us the ledger. Dad offered to arrange collection of her belongings with both attorneys present.
Celeste responded with a message to Brianna.
Your stepfather chose Emma. Decide which family you want.
Brianna showed it to me with tears in her eyes.
“You don’t have to answer tonight,” I said.
“She keeps making me choose.”
I wanted to tell her what to do. Instead, I asked her what she needed.
“To know I can disagree with Mom and still be her daughter.”
“You can.”
Dad called her then. She stepped into the hall to speak privately.
I heard her say, “I love you, Richard. I’m scared.”
He told her she had a place to stay and people who cared about her. When she came back into the room, her shoulders had lowered.
A few minutes later, my phone rang.
It was Mara.
Paul had sent one document ahead of the rest: a purchase agreement for a lake house.
May you like
The buyer was Celeste.
The deposit had been paid from an account funded by Northstar.
