Chapter 6 - EVERYBODY HAD SOMETHING TO LOSE
Paige stopped defending her mother after that.
She did not become my ally.
That would have been too simple.
She became angry at everyone.
Victoria for hiding the land debt.
Julian for moving money between companies.
Me for freezing the savings account without warning.
Herself for approving transactions she had not examined closely enough.
That last part made me trust her more.
People who could admit their own mistakes were becoming rare in my life.
My own mistake was becoming harder to ignore.
I had spent ten years telling myself Julian handled finances because his world was more complicated.
Construction draws.
Bonding.
Entity structures.
Project loans.
I was a physical therapist at a sports medicine clinic. My financial life was a paycheck, a retirement plan, a mortgage, and a trust distribution I usually left untouched.
Whenever Julian slid paperwork toward me, I signed.
Whenever he told me business was temporary, I believed temporary meant temporary.
I had not created his lies.
But I had made it easy for him to keep me uninformed.
Erica never let me turn that into blame.
“Trusting your husband is not financial misconduct.”
“No.”
“Not reading documents is still something you should change.”
“Yes.”
There was relief in holding both facts at once.
Meanwhile, Victoria hired an attorney.
Her official story about the stairs remained that we had both grabbed the same folder, I stepped backward, and she reached toward me as I lost balance.
She denied pushing.
Officer Mason told me the investigation was continuing.
My injuries proved I fell.
They did not prove why.
I hated that.
“Does she just get away with it?” I asked.
“That isn’t what I said.”
“But you have two versions.”
“Yes.”
“What else do you need?”
“Evidence that supports one version over the other.”
Real investigations were less satisfying than television.
No one could extract certainty from anger.
Victoria stopped contacting me directly.
Julian did not.
He sent messages through attorneys, then through Paige, then through mutual friends.
He wanted me to approve a limited guarantee.
Then a temporary collateral pledge.
Then a sale of “only the trust’s economic interest.”
Each proposal changed vocabulary while asking for the same thing.
Make Grandpa’s house available to Fleming debt.
Thomas rejected every version.
Then Julian offered something different.
He would repay every dollar taken from our savings.
He would put my name on his Fleming-Morrow ownership interest.
He would sign a postnuptial agreement.
All I had to do was ask Thomas to cooperate with Great Lakes.
For one evening, I considered it.
Not because I wanted Julian’s company.
Because Paige had told me subcontractors were beginning to ask whether payments would be late.
One of them was a family-owned electrical company whose owners I knew.
Their daughter had babysat for us.
Consequences did not stay politely attached to the guilty.
Rachel found me at her kitchen table staring at Julian’s proposal.
“You’re thinking about it.”
“I’m thinking about the employees.”
“You’re thinking about saving everybody.”
I looked at her.
“That’s not a crime.”
“No. But it’s your favorite way to avoid saving yourself.”
Rachel had known me since we were children.
She earned the right to say it.
I deleted the draft email asking Thomas whether some compromise was possible.
The next morning Paige called.
“I found something else.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Good or bad?”
“Depends which side of the family you’re on.”
“I’m not sure I have one anymore.”
She told me she had reconciled intercompany transfers for the previous year.
More than $420,000 had moved from Fleming-Morrow into a Fleming Holdings reserve account without normal supporting invoices.
Julian had approved every transfer.
Victoria had received every transfer.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Was it stolen?”
“Don’t use that word.”
Paige sounded like Erica.
“It could be legitimate intercompany support documented badly. It could be something worse. I’m bringing it to the outside accountant.”
“Does Julian know?”
“No.”
“Victoria?”
“No.”
I looked at my cast.
“When will they?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Why tomorrow?”
“Because the partners have an emergency meeting.”
I felt a knot form in my stomach.
Paige added, “Nora, if these transfers don’t have real agreements behind them, your lake house wasn’t going to solve their problem.”
“What was it going to solve?”
“Time.”
“For what?”
May you like
Her answer came quietly.
“Enough time to keep anybody from looking closely.”
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