Chapter 9 - THE CONSEQUENCES REACHED DEREK’S WORKPLACE
The home-equity lender froze the application permanently.
That was the simplest consequence.
The broader financial review was harder.
Derek’s employer became involved after investigators found several documents printed on company equipment during his workday. The company did not fire him immediately.
Human resources placed him on administrative leave while reviewing whether he had misused corporate devices or falsified expense records related to apartment-hunting trips he had categorized as client travel.
Abigail felt no satisfaction.
Derek’s salary was marital income while the divorce was pending.
His financial collapse could complicate hers.
That was another part of adult accountability nobody put into viral stories.
Robert’s former business creditors were dragged in too because Derek had repeatedly used Robert’s debt as justification for the proposed equity line.
Some debt was real.
Some figures were inflated.
The family had blended legitimate hardship with deception until outsiders had to separate them transaction by transaction.
Evelyn responded by contacting extended family.
Her story was simple.
Abigail had destroyed Derek’s career because she wanted revenge after an accident.
One aunt called Abigail.
“You know Derek never meant for you to get hurt.”
Abigail asked:
“How do you know?”
The aunt went quiet.
That ended the conversation.
Robert, meanwhile, provided investigators with an email he had saved from Derek.
It was dated six weeks before the assault.
Dad, I need you to keep Abby thinking this is about your debt. If she sees it as helping family, she’ll eventually agree.
Robert had replied:
I don’t like lying to her.
Derek:
Then don’t call it lying. It’s all family money eventually.
Robert never responded.
He also never warned Abigail.
The email hurt more than a denial.
Robert had recognized the manipulation while there was still time to stop it.
He chose discomfort over confrontation.
Then he physically helped hold Abigail when she finally confronted it herself.
The wider consequences damaged his relationship with everyone.
Evelyn called him a traitor.
Derek called him weak.
Abigail could not forgive him.
For the first time, Robert belonged to no side.
Nathan called one afternoon.
“There’s another development.”
Abigail was tired of those words.
“What now?”
“Investigators found a storage receipt in Derek’s desk.”
“For what?”
“A rented storage unit.”
Abigail frowned.
They already had a garage.
“What’s in it?”
“We don’t know yet.”
The unit had been rented in Evelyn’s name.
Paid from Derek’s personal credit card.
And opened two weeks before anyone mentioned the home-equity loan to Abigail.
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The search of the house had uncovered the conspiracy.
The storage unit threatened to explain what the conspiracy had actually been preparing for.
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