Chapter 5 - THE SISTER WHO SENT AN INVOICE
Vanessa came to Naomi’s office with her own attorney.
She wore a beige cardigan over a maternity dress and kept both hands beneath her stomach. Marissa noticed the gesture and hated herself for remembering how she used to place a hand over Vanessa’s belly when the baby kicked.
Vanessa admitted that Bright Harbor had billed Holly’s trust.
She insisted Derek designed the system.
“He said the trust allowed reimbursement for family caregiving if it went through a registered provider,” she said.
“Did you provide three hundred thousand dollars of care?” Naomi asked.
“I stayed with Holly. I took her to appointments. I handled school plans.”
“You billed for licensed overnight nursing.”
“Derek said the service codes were flexible.”
Marissa slid a hospital calendar across the table.
“You charged twelve hours on April ninth. Holly was inpatient. I slept beside her.”
Vanessa looked at Derek’s invoices as though seeing them for the first time.
Her attorney asked whether she had personally submitted every claim.
“No. Derek had access to the company portal.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“Yes.”
“Did you receive the deposits?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the money?”
Vanessa had retained eighty-four thousand dollars. The rest moved to Beacon Ridge.
She used her portion to pay credit-card debt, a car loan, and the down payment on a condo in Cambridge.
The condo was where she and Derek planned to live after the baby arrived.
Marissa folded her arms across her chest.
“When did the affair start?”
“Last October.”
Holly’s relapse had been diagnosed in September.
While Marissa slept in hospital chairs, Derek told Vanessa the marriage was emotionally over. He said Marissa cared only about Holly and had not touched him in months.
“I thought he was lonely,” Vanessa said.
“He was stealing from a sick child.”
“I didn’t know that at first.”
“At what point did you know enough?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled, but Marissa felt no obligation to make the question gentler.
Vanessa admitted she became suspicious when Calvin rejected the two-hundred-thousand-dollar request. Derek told her the trustee was hoarding money that should remain “inside the family.”
“He said if Holly died, the unused trust would come to you,” Vanessa said. “He said you’d eventually have to share it in the divorce.”
“That isn’t how the trust works.”
Vanessa looked up sharply.
Naomi asked what Derek had promised for the unborn child.
“A house. A private school account. Security.”
“With Holly’s money?”
“He said it was family money.”
Calvin called before the meeting ended.
The trust’s original principal had grown despite years of legitimate expenses. It should still have held approximately $1.6 million.
The current balance was $427,000.
More than one million dollars was missing.
Vanessa pressed a hand to her mouth.
May you like
Derek had not been trying to preserve Holly’s trust for his new son.
He had already spent most of it.
