Chapter 9 - The Account Thomas Forgot He Still Had
Thomas did own the account.
He had forgotten it existed.
That sounded ridiculous until the bank pulled records.
It was an old business savings account from a construction partnership Thomas closed six years earlier.
Balance before the transfer:
$43.17.
Then $75,000 arrived.
The next day, $74,500 moved to a Nevada company called Westmere Advisory.
Thomas had not initiated either transaction.
His online credentials had been used.
Thomas changed passwords years earlier.
But Derek once helped him access the account during the original $100,000 transfers.
He had seen enough information to know it existed.
Was that proof Derek moved the money?
No.
Not yet.
The bank reviewed login records.
The access came from an IP address associated with a commercial VPN.
No clear device identification.
Claire felt frustrated.
Every answer opened another ambiguity.
Dana reminded her:
“Ambiguity doesn’t mean Derek wins. It means we don’t claim what we can’t prove.”
Then Westmere responded to a legal demand.
The $74,500 payment was described as a consulting retainer from Thomas Hale.
But the engagement letter was signed electronically by Thomas.
He denied signing it.
The contact email was not his.
It was a variation using his middle initial.
Created two weeks earlier.
The recovery email traced to an address associated with Derek’s office.
That changed things.
Still not a complete answer.
But closer.
Sabrina recognized Westmere.
Derek had hired them months earlier.
For what?
Asset restructuring.
The accountant found the connection.
Westmere helped Derek establish a new entity intended to receive the valuable CWD property after refinancing.
The same transfer Sabrina refused to complete.
The $75,000 movement through Thomas’s account appeared designed to create a paper trail linking Thomas to the restructuring money.
Why?
Claire saw it before anyone said it.
“If Dad came after Derek later, Derek could say Dad had been involved financially.”
Dana nodded carefully.
“That is one possible interpretation.”
The sophistication frightened Claire.
Not because Derek was a criminal genius.
Because he used ordinary systems.
Accounts nobody checked.
Credentials people forgot.
Documents people signed without reading.
Trust.
The same tools he used inside the marriage.
Then a new fact emerged.
Westmere had drafted the asset-transfer documents but never completed them.
Sabrina’s refusal had stopped the final step.
That meant Derek’s plan was not finished when Claire left.
The valuable property was still inside CWD.
Claire still owned thirty percent.
For the first time, the company structure Derek built to use Claire’s credit gave her leverage he had not intended her to have.
Dana smiled slightly.
“He put you on paper because he needed you.”
Claire looked at the ownership documents.
“And now?”
“Now you’re still on paper.”
Derek had spent years treating Claire as if she had no power.
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Legally, he had given her some because his borrowing required it.
The control mechanism contained the beginning of its own reversal.
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