Chapter 12 - Eight Million Dollars
“That is not my account.”
Rosa sat at Daniel’s kitchen table while Rachel showed her the transfer record.
Her face shifted from confusion to horror.
“I have seventeen hundred dollars in checking. I don’t have eight million anything.”
Rachel nodded. “I believe you.”
“Then why is my name there?”
“To make you look exactly like Vanessa said you were.”
A woman who came for money.
Daniel paced near the windows.
Marcus had prepared for this.
Maybe for years.
Rachel zoomed in on the account details. “It was opened three weeks ago using your Social Security number and an old address.”
Rosa went still. “Old address?”
“West Addison Street.”
Rosa’s eyes widened. “I haven’t lived there since before Noah was born.”
“Who had that information?”
“The clinic. The surrogacy agency.”
“And Marcus.”
Daniel stopped pacing.
“This isn’t just about hiding the surrogacy.”
Rachel nodded. “No. He’s trying to build a fraud narrative around Rosa.”
The detective called from Lake Geneva.
The cabin was empty.
But they found clothes, two passports, and a laptop smashed in the fireplace.
Vanessa’s passport was there.
Marcus’s was not.
“Maybe they split up,” Rachel said.
Daniel looked at Noah playing on the floor with wooden blocks. The boy had slept beside Rosa’s bed and woke twice screaming about the closet.
Daniel had sat on the floor outside the bedroom until dawn because he could not bring himself to go far.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Vanessa whispered, “Daniel.”
He stood.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Come home.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus is not who you think he is.”
Daniel laughed bitterly. “That’s a little late.”
“No. You don’t understand. He didn’t just fix the clinic records.”
“What did he do?”
Vanessa began crying.
“He made me keep Noah.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You abused my son and now you want me to believe you were forced?”
“I know what I did.”
“Do you?”
A sound came through the phone.
A door opening.
Vanessa sucked in a breath.
“Daniel, listen to me. Marcus has been stealing from your company for years. The eight million was only the last transfer.”
Then a man’s voice sounded behind her.
May you like
“Who are you calling?”
The line went dead.
