Chapter 12 - What They Were Actually Protecting
Chris was alone when Natalie arrived.
Marsha came through the garage ten minutes later.
Natalie hadn’t invited her.
Chris had.
Of course he had.
Natalie remained standing.
“Fine. Both of you.”
Chris looked exhausted.
Marsha looked furious enough to hide how frightened she was.
Natalie placed printed copies of the transfers and emails on the dining table.
The same table Chris had knocked into after she slapped him.
Marsha glanced at them.
“You went through private business records.”
“Records containing my money.”
Chris rubbed his forehead.
“I was going to replace it.”
“When?”
“When the Glen Ellyn project closed.”
“That project was already late.”
“I could’ve turned it around.”
Natalie looked at him.
“That’s what you were protecting? Your company?”
Chris didn’t answer immediately.
“My name,” he said at last.
The honesty surprised everyone.
“I spent ten years building something. Everybody thinks I’m the guy who figured it out. You think I wanted to come home and tell you I’d buried the company in debt?”
“So stealing felt better.”
“No.”
“But easier.”
Chris looked down.
Marsha broke in.
“He would’ve lost everything.”
Natalie turned toward her.
“No. He would’ve lost a business.”
“You don’t understand what that does to a man like him.”
“And you decided what stealing from a woman like me should do?”
Marsha’s face tightened.
“I gave him eighty thousand dollars.”
“That was your choice.”
“I am his mother.”
“And I am his wife. Neither title gives either of you ownership of me.”
Chris sat heavily in the chair.
“I knew you’d say no.”
Natalie nodded.
“Yes.”
Chris looked up.
“And then what was I supposed to do?”
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The part you still don’t understand.”
Natalie gathered the papers.
“You think my refusal would’ve been the problem.”
She walked toward the foyer.
Behind her Chris said, “What do you want from me?”
Natalie stopped.
“Every account. Every debt. Every transfer. No omissions.”
Marsha stiffened.
Chris looked at his mother.
May you like
That glance gave Natalie her answer before either of them spoke.
There was still something they had not disclosed.
