Chapter 4 - My Father’s Name on Work He Never Approved
Whitman Restoration occupied an old brick workshop near the Stevenson Expressway.
It smelled like sawdust, coffee, and varnish.
Dad was already in his office when I arrived.
A folder sat open on his desk.
“The Marlowe is one of their downtown properties,” he said. “Boutique offices. Expensive restoration.”
“Cordelia runs the project?”
“She oversees Hale Design & Development.”
I knew the title.
I had never understood what it actually involved.
Dad showed me the contract.
Whitman Restoration had been hired for $186,000 in specialty woodwork.
Dad completed the work.
He invoiced $184,700 after a change order reduced the final scope.
Then Cordelia asked him to issue a revised invoice for $247,000.
“Why?”
“She said the property lender had approved a larger construction budget, and they needed the invoice to match what had already been allocated.”
“That sounds like fraud.”
“That’s why I refused.”
Dad had sent the refusal by email.
Cordelia replied:
You’re being shortsighted. Everybody does this.
Dad answered:
Not with my company name.
Three weeks later, a subcontractor called asking about a payment delay.
That was when Dad discovered a document circulating with a Whitman Restoration logo and a $247,000 figure.
“Is it your invoice?”
“No.”
“Signature?”
“Looks like mine.”
My stomach dropped.
“Did you confront Cordelia?”
“I confronted Thaddius.”
I stared at him.
Dad looked miserable.
“He asked me not to tell you until he handled it.”
“When?”
“November third.”
Six weeks before Christmas.
Thaddius had come home that night with Thai food and asked whether I wanted to spend New Year’s in Aspen.
I remembered because I had thought he seemed unusually attentive.
“What did he say he would do?”
“He said he’d get the false invoice removed and make sure Cordelia stopped contacting me.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
Two days before Christmas, Cordelia had called again.
She offered Dad future contracts if he would confirm the higher amount.
When he refused, she told him he should think about whether “Sara really wanted to choose her parents over the family she married into.”
Dad had planned to tell me after the holiday.
“Why wait?”
His shoulders sank.
“Because I didn’t want to hurt your marriage.”
I looked at the false invoice again.
“Everybody keeps protecting my marriage except the man in it.”
Dad said nothing.
I photographed nothing.
I took no documents.
I told him to preserve the originals and contact his accountant and attorney.
Then I called my own lawyer.
Not to file for divorce.
Not yet.
I needed to understand what my name, my husband’s name, and our marital finances might be connected to.
Before I left the shop, Dad stopped me.
“There’s one more thing.”
He opened a drawer.
Inside was an envelope containing a check for $30,000.
Issued by Hale Development.
Payable to Whitman Restoration.
Dad had never deposited it.
May you like
The memo line read:
Consulting — Marlowe reconciliation.
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