Chapter 7
I went to Daniel’s office as soon as he called.
He had the account statements spread across a table. Miriam sat beside him, her face drawn.
Thomas and I had set aside money for Emma and Noah when they were born. Michael was the parent named to manage the account while they were minors. We had trusted him to use it for their needs.
Over the past eighteen months, he had transferred money from that account into his own, then into the business.
I read the amounts one by one.
Some had been returned. Much of it had not.
“Does Lauren know?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Daniel said. “Michael sent the statements himself.”
That mattered. He could have tried to hide them longer. It did not make the transfers right.
I called him from the conference room.
“Come here,” I said.
He arrived twenty minutes later. He saw the statements and sat without speaking.
“How could you use their money?” I asked.
“I told myself it was temporary.”
“You used it again after the first transfer.”
“Every time I thought a contract would pay, it got pushed back.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would have looked at me like you’re looking at me now.”
I could feel tears rising, and I hated that he saw them.
“Those accounts were for Emma and Noah.”
“I know.”
“You were supposed to protect them.”
“I know.”
He covered his face.
Daniel waited until Michael lowered his hands.
“We need a full accounting,” he said. “Every transfer and every repayment. I advise you to speak with your own attorney.”
Michael nodded.
“I already called one.”
I was startled.
“I knew you’d find it when I sent the statements,” he said. “I should have told you before.”
“Why send them at all?”
“Emma asked me last night whether you would still love me if I told the truth about something worse.”
His voice failed.
“What did you tell her?” I asked.
“I told her I didn’t know.”
I pushed the statements aside.
“She should never have had to carry that question.”
“I know.”
Daniel outlined the immediate steps. The accounts would be protected from further withdrawals. Michael would provide the business records and make a repayment plan. Daniel would review what else needed to be done.
I listened, but my mind kept returning to Emma.
She had seen her father push me and heard him deny it. Now he feared losing my love because of what he had done with her money.
I wanted to promise him everything would be all right. I could not.
“You need to tell Lauren,” I said.
“I will.”
“And the children?”
“Daniel says we should talk about what they need to know with a counselor,” Michael said. “I don’t want to ask them to keep this secret.”
That was the first sensible thing he had said all morning.
I met Emma and Noah at the park two days later. Lauren brought them and stayed nearby with a book.
Noah ran ahead to the swings. Emma walked beside me.
“Dad’s been home a lot,” she said.
“He’s dealing with something difficult at work.”
“He looks scared.”
“He may be.”
“Are you angry at him?”
“Yes.”
“Can you still love someone when you’re angry?”
I stopped beside a bench.
“Yes. I love your dad very much.”
She studied me.
“Even when he does something bad?”
“Loving him doesn’t mean I’ll say a bad choice was okay.”
She thought about that for a moment.
“Mom said families can tell the truth and stay families.”
“Your mom’s right.”
I glanced toward Lauren. She looked up, met my eyes, and gave a small nod.
A week earlier, I would have doubted her. That afternoon, I saw a woman frightened for her husband and trying to steady her children. I did not excuse what she had done, but I could recognize what she was doing now.
At the office, the numbers grew clearer.
Michael’s company could survive if two clients paid what they owed and he cut expenses. It was also possible those payments would arrive too late.
Miriam and Daniel presented several options. I could make a loan on documented terms. I could decline and let Michael negotiate with the lender. Either way, the children’s account had to be restored.
For the first time in my life, I did not answer immediately.
I took the reports home. I walked through the garden Thomas had planted and tried to imagine what he would have advised.
I knew he had loved Michael fiercely.
I knew he would have been furious about the children’s money.
I also knew that using Thomas’s imagined answer would let me avoid making my own decision.
The next day, I met Michael at his office.
Half the desks were empty. He had already reduced his staff hours and given up the large conference suite. He looked older than he had on the runway.
“I’ve put my house up for sale,” he said.
I stared at him.
“Lauren agreed?”
“She suggested it.”
“That’s a big step.”
“It’s the biggest asset we can sell without closing the company. We can rent near the kids’ school.”
He showed me the repayment plan he and his attorney had drafted. The first payment would go to Emma and Noah’s account. He had also asked the lender to correct its file so it no longer suggested my office guaranteed anything.
“I want to make this right,” he said.
“I can see you’ve started.”
He waited.
I knew what he hoped I would say.
“I’ll decide about a business loan after the client payments are confirmed,” I told him. “Miriam and Daniel will set the terms if it makes sense.”
Disappointment flashed across his face, but he nodded.
As I reached the door, he called after me.
“Mom? Do you still want to see us at all?”
I turned.
“I’m seeing you right now.”
His eyes shone.
May you like
Then my phone rang.
It was Miriam. One of Michael’s largest clients had canceled its contract that morning.
