Chapter 7 - The File Called AFTER BILL
Claire returned to her house four days later.
Melissa came with her.
Mark agreed through text to leave while Claire collected clothes, medication, tax records, and financial files.
The kitchen smelled stale.
The funeral flowers were beginning to wilt.
William’s photograph still sat on the sideboard.
Claire avoided the chair where Mark had shoved her.
Upstairs, most financial folders were nearly empty.
“He cleaned them out,” Melissa said.
“Maybe.”
“Claire.”
“I’m not assuming anything.”
Melissa gave her a look.
“Okay. Growth.”
Claire almost smiled.
Then she turned on the shared desktop computer.
Mark’s profile required a password.
Hers did not.
She opened her Documents folder looking for old tax returns.
A spreadsheet sat beside them.
AFTER BILL.xlsx.
Claire stopped.
Melissa leaned closer.
“What is that?”
Claire opened it.
Mortgage: 286K.
HELOC: 156K.
Business line: 412K.
Tax liability: 73K.
Equipment notes: 89K.
Below:
Expected estate proceeds through Claire:
1.1–1.4M?
Then:
Payoff priority.
Business line.
HELOC.
Taxes.
Mortgage optional.
At the bottom:
Lake Anna property — 475K.
Claire felt physically sick.
Melissa whispered, “He was spending it.”
“No.”
Claire stared at the numbers.
“He was allocating it.”
The difference somehow made it worse.
She checked the file information.
Created eleven months earlier.
Last modified four days before William died.
Another worksheet contained rough estate figures.
Diane house.
M 200.
C remainder.
Beside Claire’s line:
NEED DIRECT DISTRIBUTION.
Claire’s phone rang.
Mark.
She answered.
“We found the spreadsheet.”
Silence.
“After Bill.”
“That’s a private business planning file.”
“My father’s death is a business plan?”
“You are deliberately making everything sound disgusting.”
“You typed it.”
“I needed to understand our future liquidity.”
“Our?”
“Yes, Claire. Our. We’ve been married twenty-two years.”
“What happens in thirty days?”
Mark stopped.
Claire had seen the lender-renewal note.
“What happens in thirty days?”
“The business credit line renews.”
“And?”
“The bank wants more liquidity.”
Claire closed her eyes.
There it was.
The inheritance was not simply greed.
Mark needed it.
Or believed he did.
“You promised the bank Dad’s money, didn’t you?”
“I did not promise anything.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Mark hung up.
Claire looked at the spreadsheet again.
May you like
Her father had not died and unexpectedly left Mark with temptation.
Mark had spent almost a year building his financial survival around a man who was still alive.
