Chapter 7
Dad read the purchase agreement at the kitchen table the next morning.
Celeste had signed it four months earlier. The lake house was nearly two hours away. She had never mentioned buying it.
Brianna recognized the address.
“Mom took me there once,” she said. “She told me a friend owned it and wanted decorating advice.”
Dad pushed the document toward Mara.
“Can the deposit be recovered?”
“That depends on the contract and what funds remain,” she said. “We’ll make the claim and preserve the records. The company will need to report the missing money.”
I watched Dad’s face. His anger was there, but so was grief. He had shared a home with Celeste for seven years. Whatever she had done, he had loved her.
Mara advised him to leave the investigation to her and the authorities. I took over a client meeting he was meant to lead that afternoon.
It was the first time I walked into the conference room as the company’s controlling owner. Several people looked at Dad’s usual chair before looking at me.
I opened the project plan and asked the team what they needed to meet the deadline.
By the end of the hour, we had assigned the work and settled a budget. I walked out shaking, but I had done the job.
Colin caught up with me by the elevators.
“You handled that well.”
“I thought I was going to forget every number.”
“You didn’t.”
I smiled for the first time that day.
At home, Brianna was waiting outside my apartment. She had come to return a sweater she borrowed, but I could tell she wanted to talk.
“Mom called,” she said. “She admits she used company money for the deposit. She says Daniel told her it was an advance she could repay.”
“Did she tell Mara?”
“She said she would.”
Brianna sat at my kitchen counter.
“She asked me to say I helped plan the events, so the invoices won’t look false.”
“Did you?”
“I made guest lists. I didn’t do the work on those invoices.”
“Then tell Mara exactly that.”
“She said she could go to prison.”
I pulled out the chair beside her.
“I don’t know what will happen to Celeste. Lying for her would put you in danger too.”
Brianna nodded. Her eyes filled.
“I hate that she asked me.”
“So do I.”
She called Mara from my kitchen and gave her a full account of the conversation.
Celeste’s attorney arranged an interview the following week. Celeste admitted directing the Northstar payments and using some funds for the lake house. She claimed she intended to repay everything when the property sold. Daniel disputed her explanation of his role, but both had signed approvals.
The records could be checked. Their intentions would be argued later.
Dad and I went through the company’s immediate problems. We told the board what had been found and what Mara was doing. We also reviewed the payment process so one person could not approve outside vendors without proof of work.
After the board meeting, Dad leaned against my office door.
“I’m proud of you,” he said.
“I learned from you.”
“You also noticed things I missed.”
I thought of Celeste’s hand on my arm.
“We both did.”
He nodded.
At his next medical appointment, I sat beside him while the doctor explained the procedure. It was less complicated than I had feared, though he would need rest afterward.
In the parking lot, Dad asked if I would help him choose someone to run the company while he recovered.
“I can do it,” I said.
“I know you can. I’m asking whether you want to do it alone.”
I considered the long weeks ahead.
“No. I want Colin and the finance director with me.”
“Good. Ask them.”
That night, Brianna and I sorted through the photographs in Dad’s house. Celeste had removed more than the pictures of Mom. There were images of me at school, Dad holding me on his shoulders, and my parents laughing over a badly decorated birthday cake.
We found space for some of them. Others I took to my apartment.
Brianna held one of the two of us in matching sweaters.
“Can we put this one in the kitchen?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She looked relieved.
At the end of the week, Paul’s attorney confirmed that the lake house purchase had not closed. The deposit remained with the seller’s agent and could be held while the dispute was resolved.
That was good news. Then Mara called again.
Celeste had filed papers challenging Dad’s transfer of the house and company shares. She claimed his health had affected his judgment and that I had pressured him.
May you like
I stood in my office with the phone to my ear.
Dad was preparing for a heart procedure, and Celeste had chosen to call his decision a symptom of illness.
