Chapter 10 - Why Derek Needed Hannah Cut Off From Her Father
The outside review took another nine days.
Hannah spent those days learning how to be Eli’s mother while her marriage unraveled through scheduled calls, legal emails and boxes of belongings collected from the house with assistance.
She did not enter Derek’s home office.
She did not search for the blue folder.
She did not need to.
The records already existed elsewhere.
Blue Ridge Materials Consulting had received payments from Pierce Custom Homes based on invoices approved while Derek ran operations.
The company had no actual construction employees.
No warehouse.
No verified deliveries.
And the mailing contact led back to an LLC organized by a college friend of Derek’s.
But that was not the twist that broke Hannah.
The twist came when Thomas finally reconstructed the timeline.
Derek had been under internal suspicion before Hannah ever became pregnant.
Months before.
At the time Thomas had quietly questioned him about irregular vendor billing.
Two weeks later, Hannah became pregnant.
Derek’s behavior changed almost immediately.
He took over the household finances.
He insisted Hannah reduce her hours at the architectural firm where she worked.
He discouraged weekend visits with Thomas.
He began telling her pregnancy made her “fragile.”
By the third trimester, Hannah depended on Derek for transportation to several appointments because he claimed her driving made him nervous.
Then the vendor review intensified.
And Derek started answering Thomas through Hannah’s phone.
Hannah sat across from her father while the dates lined up on the conference-room table.
“This started before he lost the job.”
Thomas nodded.
Derek’s resentment about the pregnancy had never simply been about a tired wife or a shrinking paycheck.
Her pregnancy had given him something useful.
A reason to isolate her that sounded protective.
A reason to describe her as emotional.
A reason to keep Thomas away.
A reason to convince everyone that difficult information should be withheld until after the birth.
And Hannah had unknowingly helped him.
She remembered telling her father at Christmas, “Derek’s been incredible. He handles everything now.”
Everything.
The banking.
The mail.
Her phone when she slept.
Contact with her family.
Then Thomas admitted the part that changed Hannah’s anger toward him too.
“I knew more than I told you.”
“How much?”
“I knew Derek was lying when he said he resigned.”
“You told me that.”
“I also suspected the vendor problem was larger.”
Hannah stared at him.
“When?”
“Before I agreed to keep quiet.”
She stood.
Thomas’s voice broke.
“I thought if I confronted him privately, I could recover the money without blowing up your marriage while you were pregnant.”
Hannah shook her head.
“You weren’t protecting my marriage.”
“I know.”
“You were protecting the company.”
Thomas did not deny it.
There it was.
The betrayal beneath Derek’s betrayal.
Her father had not simply been fooled.
Part of him had chosen silence because exposing Derek publicly would expose how badly Thomas had supervised his own son-in-law.
Three clues suddenly meant something different.
Thomas backing away after the messages.
His reluctance to explain the firing.
Derek’s absolute terror when Hannah said her father was coming.
Both men had been protecting secrets.
Derek’s secret involved deception and money.
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Thomas’s involved shame.
And Hannah had been the person neither of them trusted with the truth.
