Chapter 3 - THE MONEY THAT WASN’T GAMBLING MONEY
Emily did not go home.
Her older sister Rachel drove her to a hotel in Rosemont that night, then refused to leave until Emily fell asleep.
Emily barely slept.
By morning she had called a family-law attorney and a financial investigator recommended by the attorney.
Her name was Cynthia Bell.
Cynthia’s first instruction was simple.
“Don’t decide what happened before we know what happened.”
Emily hated that advice.
She wanted a clean explanation.
Daniel had gambled.
Daniel had lied.
Daniel had committed some strange adoption fraud.
Pick one.
Instead Cynthia asked for bank statements.
Emily and Daniel had a joint checking account for household expenses.
Daniel also maintained a personal account and an account for Mercer Logistics, the small freight-brokerage company he had owned for six years.
Emily knew the company had struggled.
She did not know how badly.
Within forty-eight hours, Cynthia identified transfers Emily had never noticed.
They were not labeled “adoption.”
They came from an attorney trust account in Wisconsin.
$8,500.
Then $6,000.
Then $7,250.
Then smaller payments.
Most entered Daniel’s business account.
Some entered the joint account.
Emily stared at one.
“Wait.”
A $4,200 transfer had arrived February 3.
Their mortgage payment left the same account February 4.
Another payment covered property taxes.
One paid Emily’s health-insurance deductible.
Her stomach turned.
“I used this money.”
Cynthia shook her head.
“You paid household bills from a joint account. That does not establish that you knew the source.”
“But it paid my bills.”
“Yes.”
Emily thought of Michael and his wife sending money because they believed they were helping a pregnant woman planning to give them her child.
“I need to give it back.”
“Eventually there may be restitution questions. Right now, don’t start moving money without legal advice.”
Cynthia opened another statement.
Daniel’s gambling explanation was not entirely false.
There were sportsbook transactions.
Enough to matter.
Roughly $19,000 over nine months.
But gambling had not created the entire financial disaster.
Mercer Logistics owed federal payroll taxes.
Two commercial clients had defaulted.
Daniel had personally guaranteed equipment financing.
The company was behind on its office lease.
He had needed cash.
Then Cynthia found the strangest account.
A new email address had been used on several incoming payment records.
emily.mercer19895@—
Emily stopped her.
“That isn’t mine.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never seen it.”
The recovery phone number belonged to Daniel.
Cynthia wrote something down.
Emily felt anger rising.
“What was he telling them?”
“We need the correspondence.”
Nathan Cole had some.
The Wisconsin attorney had more.
But obtaining it properly would take time.
That afternoon, Emily received a message from Daniel through his new attorney.
I never intended to give anyone our daughter. Nobody had any legal claim to her. I was buying time.
Emily read it twice.
Buying time.
That phrase frightened her more than denial.
Because people usually bought time for something they believed would eventually happen.
Emily forwarded the message to Cynthia.
May you like
Then asked the question she had been avoiding.
“If he never planned to give them the baby, what did he think would happen when she was born?”
