Chapter 4 - THE FIRST THING EMMA SAVED WASN’T HER MARRIAGE
Emma changed out of her wedding dress in silence.
Maya helped with the buttons because Emma’s fingers would not cooperate.
Susan sat in the corner, still crying.
Emma put on the jeans and gray sweater she had worn to the venue that morning.
The clothes felt like they belonged to someone who had existed years earlier.
“Start at the beginning,” Emma said.
Susan tried.
Daniel had begun worrying about money two years before his death. Medical bills from Susan’s breast cancer treatment had been mostly covered by insurance, but there had been deductibles, travel, time away from work, and repairs on the Brooks house that could no longer be delayed.
Then Daniel had made what Susan called “investments.”
Emma knew about those.
Small commercial properties with coworkers.
Nothing enormous.
Susan shook her head.
“Not those.”
Daniel had put money into a private construction venture with two subcontractors.
The project failed.
He borrowed against his retirement account.
Then against the house.
Then, according to Susan, Grant approached him.
“Grant?”
“He knew your father was struggling.”
“How?”
“They worked together.”
That was true.
Grant had been a regional project manager at Hale Development then. Daniel had reported to Grant’s uncle, but Grant had been involved in several of the same projects.
Susan said Grant arranged “advances.”
Emma looked at the transfer list.
“From the company?”
“I thought so.”
“You thought?”
Susan wiped beneath her eyes.
“Your father handled it.”
Maya spoke for the first time.
“Did Daniel sign loan agreements?”
“I never saw any.”
“Promissory notes?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did money go into your joint bank account?”
Susan hesitated.
“Some.”
That was the inconsistency.
If Daniel had borrowed $612,400, there should have been a trail.
Bank deposits.
Loan documents.
Tax consequences.
Something.
Maya asked Susan to write down every account Daniel had used and every financial institution she remembered.
Susan bristled.
“You’re treating him like a criminal.”
Emma looked at her.
“What am I supposed to treat him like?”
“He was your father.”
“And Grant hit me because of money Dad supposedly took.”
Susan flinched.
Emma regretted the volume, not the words.
She turned to Maya.
“What do I do first?”
“Not investigate Grant yourself.”
“What do I do?”
“Protect your access to your own money and documents. Then we figure out what’s real.”
Emma and Grant did not yet share a checking account, but they had joint wedding expenses, a shared credit card for household purchases, and a lease on a townhouse in Charlottesville.
Emma froze the shared card.
Changed her banking passwords.
Removed Grant’s access to the cloud folder containing her business tax returns.
Called her office manager and instructed her not to give Grant or anyone from Hale Development access to Brooks Studio records without Emma’s approval.
Each action felt painfully formal.
Each one made reconciliation harder.
That was the cost.
At 4:17 p.m., Emma opened an email from her office manager.
Subject: Strange Request From Grant Last Month.
Attached was a scan of a document Grant had asked the receptionist to pull from Brooks Studio archives.
It was an invoice from Daniel Brooks dated fourteen months before his death.
D. Brooks Consulting.
The company Grant claimed had received more than six hundred thousand dollars.
May you like
Except the mailing address on the invoice was not Daniel’s home.
It was the address of Hale Development’s corporate accounting office.
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