Chapter 2 - THE ACCOUNT ELENA THOUGHT SHE KNEW
Elena had always considered herself financially responsible.
She earned a good salary as regional marketing director for a healthcare company.
Brandon owned Apex Residential Group, a custom-renovation business with eighteen employees.
They used three main accounts.
Household checking.
Emergency savings.
A joint brokerage account created after they sold their first home.
Elena checked the household account.
She rarely checked the brokerage account.
That had been Brandon’s job.
Or rather, that was how it gradually became his job.
Seven years earlier, they reviewed everything together.
Then Apex grew.
Elena started traveling more.
Bills became automatic.
Quarterly conversations became annual conversations.
Annual conversations became:
“Everything okay?”
And Brandon answering:
“We’re good.”
Margaret had been searching Brandon’s home office for the insurance paperwork related to her flooded condo when she found several printed brokerage statements beneath a folder.
She recognized Elena’s name.
Then she saw withdrawals.
“Why were you reading them?” Elena asked.
Margaret flinched.
Elena immediately regretted the question.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. It’s fair.”
Margaret had been nosy.
She admitted it.
The first transfer was $22,000.
Then $31,500.
Then $18,000.
More followed.
Margaret did not know what they meant.
So she carried one statement into the foyer and asked Brandon.
His reaction was immediate.
“Put that down.”
Margaret refused.
“What is Stonebridge Project Services?”
Brandon grabbed the paper.
Margaret told him she was calling Elena.
That was when he accused her of stealing private documents.
Then came the first slap.
The second happened when Elena opened the door.
At two the next morning Elena sat in her best friend Rachel’s guest room with a laptop.
Margaret slept down the hall.
Elena logged into the brokerage account.
The total withdrawals over ten months were:
$168,740.
She stared at the number until the digits stopped looking real.
Recipient names varied.
Stonebridge Project Services.
ARG Operations.
Milton Supply Solutions.
One transfer simply said:
BUSINESS ADVANCE.
Elena called Brandon.
He answered immediately.
“You finally looked.”
She went still.
“You knew I would.”
“After your mother went through my office? Obviously.”
“Where did one hundred sixty-eight thousand dollars go?”
“My business.”
“You moved our money into Apex?”
“Some of it.”
“Without telling me?”
“I told you we had cash-flow pressure.”
“You said a client was late paying.”
“It was worse than that.”
“How much worse?”
Brandon became defensive.
“This is why I didn’t tell you.”
Elena almost laughed.
“You moved almost a hundred seventy thousand dollars because you were afraid I’d ask questions?”
“I moved money to protect what supports this family.”
“My salary supports this family too.”
“Here we go.”
That phrase.
Here we go.
The phrase Brandon used whenever Elena mentioned that her income was not secondary.
She looked toward the hallway where her mother was sleeping.
“Why did you call Mom a thief?”
“She stole financial documents from my office.”
“She found our statements.”
“She invaded my privacy.”
“Our money is your privacy?”
Silence.
Then Brandon said:
“Your mother has spent years getting between us.”
May you like
Elena closed her eyes.
This was no longer a conversation about one slap.
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