Chapter 3
I woke before sunrise to a message from Ethan.
He wanted me to meet him for breakfast. He promised he would answer every question.
I forwarded the message to Priya and asked whether she had received the original statements. While I waited, I watched the ocean from my balcony. From this height, I could not see the villa where Ethan and Vanessa had spent the week.
That was a relief.
Priya called at eight. “The company reported distributions to the trust in three separate years. The statements mailed to you show none.”
“Did Ethan take the money?”
“We need bank records before I can say where it went. I’ve requested them.”
I thought back to the years she named. The first was when Ethan had bought his second house for the company’s visiting executives. The second was when he had opened a new warehouse. The third was last year, after he told me cash was tight and asked me to stop making donations from our joint account.
I had believed him each time.
“He’ll say it was for the business,” I told Priya.
“Let him explain it with records. You don’t have to meet him alone.”
I texted Ethan that any conversation about the trust would include Priya. He replied almost immediately.
“We’re husband and wife. We shouldn’t need lawyers to talk.”
I put my phone down.
My mother arrived that afternoon. She had taken the first flight she could find. When I opened the door, she looked at my stomach before she looked at my face.
“Is the baby all right?”
“She’s been kicking all morning.”
Then Mom hugged me, and I cried for the first time since the lobby.
She let me cry. She did not ask why I had stayed with Ethan through all the late nights, the missed appointments, and the way he had started correcting me in front of friends. She knew I had loved him. She knew our lives were tangled together.
When I pulled back, she said, “Your father would want you to know what belongs to you.”
“I wish he could tell me what he meant to do.”
“He did,” Mom said. “He signed the trust.”
We ate lunch in my room. Mom told me she could stay as long as I needed. I asked her to come home with me. I wanted to collect my things and find somewhere peaceful before I decided anything about the marriage.
Later, I met Priya by video call with Mom beside me. Priya laid out what she knew and what she still needed. Two distributions had been sent to an account opened in the trust’s name. The account was not one I recognized. Ethan had been an authorized signer while Dad’s estate was being settled.
“That authority should have ended when the trust administration was completed,” Priya said. “We’re checking whether it did.”
“Can the money be recovered?”
“If it was spent improperly, we’ll pursue it. First we document what happened.”
I heard the steady sound of her voice and tried to match it with my breathing. I had enough to face without imagining every possible result.
After the call, I found a voicemail from Vanessa.
“Grace, I know I’m the last person you want to hear from. There’s something about the sale you need to know. Please call me.”
I played it for Priya. She advised me to ask Vanessa to speak with her instead. I sent a short message with Priya’s number.
Vanessa answered within minutes.
“Thank you,” she wrote. “I’ll call her now.”
That evening, Ethan knocked on my room door. I knew it was him from the way he said my name.
“Grace, please. Five minutes.”
Mom stood beside me. “You don’t have to open it.”
I wanted to see his face. I also wanted him to see that Mom was with me. I opened the door on the chain.
Ethan held a paper bag from the resort bakery. “I brought the tea biscuits you like.”
I almost laughed. When we were newly married, he used to bring me one every Friday from the café near his office. He had not done that in years.
“Did you speak to Vanessa?” he asked.
“She left me a message.”
“She’s trying to protect herself.”
“I asked her to speak to my lawyer.”
Ethan stared through the narrow opening. He saw Mom behind me.
“Your mother’s here.”
“Yes.”
“I thought we could work this out before everyone got involved.”
“Everyone became involved when you offered to sell shares you didn’t own.”
“I never said I owned your father’s trust.”
“You told the buyer you could deliver its approval.”
“I thought you would agree.”
“You didn’t ask.”
He lowered the bag. “I was going to tell you.”
I had heard that promise about the conference, the tax notice, and Vanessa. I could no longer use it in place of an answer.
“Good night, Ethan.”
I closed the door. He remained outside for several seconds, then walked away.
Mom poured me a glass of water. My phone rang before I could drink it.
It was Priya.
“Vanessa has given me copies of emails from Ethan,” she said. “He planned to ask you to sign the sale papers next week. He also asked her to find out whether Declan knew about your trust.”
I looked at the closed door.
May you like
“Why would he need to know that?”
“Because,” Priya said, “Ethan was afraid Declan had already found the missing money.”
