Chapter 18 - The Truth About the Money
Nathan came to the investigator's office with his attorney and bank statements. The account had been opened under his name using identification from an old business filing. He claimed he'd never accessed it. The bank's device logs pointed instead to a computer registered to Alder.
"It looks like Martin was making Nathan the fall guy," Emma said later. "That doesn't erase Nathan's other choices."
I understood. My husband might have been deceived about one theft and guilty of betraying me in a hundred ordinary ways.
On October seventeenth, Vanessa agreed to a recorded interview. She described how Martin had made her a nominal officer in multiple companies, then pressured her with threats of prosecution. She'd begun the affair with Nathan after meeting him through the lenders. When he tried to end it, she demanded money and the necklace. She admitted helping Martin frighten me out of the mansion.
After Vanessa left, I sat alone and wrote down exactly what she'd admitted, then listed the things she still hadn't answered. Part of me wanted to hate her so cleanly that I never had to think about her again. But the legal case required more complicated truths: a person could be pressured and still make cruel choices; another could be deceived and still choose to lie. Emma looked over my notes and said, "That's the hardest thing about justice. It asks us to be accurate when we're furious." I wasn't ready to forgive anyone. I was ready to insist that their actions have names.
"I told myself you were rich and would land on your feet," she said, refusing to look directly at me. "I didn't want to know anything else."
"You looked me in the eyes and smiled," I said.
"Yes."
There was no defense for that. She didn't offer one.
That evening Nathan asked to speak with me once, with Emma present. He handed over his phone, password written on paper, and a signed agreement to separate our finances pending divorce proceedings.
"I don't expect you to come home," he said. "I just want you to know I'm helping them."
"You should help because it's right, Nathan. Not because it might get me back."
He nodded. "You're right."
May you like
For one trembling second I almost told him about the baby. Then my phone rang. It was Dr. Lin's office, asking me to call urgently about a test result.
