Chapter 6 - THE FIRST PERSON WHO STOPPED BELIEVING AVIA
Marianne called Beck the next morning.
“I need to tell you something.”
Beck put her on speaker.
Talia sat beside him.
Marianne explained that after Beck’s father died, Avia had become unusually protective of trust statements.
Before that, quarterly summaries were circulated to adult beneficiaries.
Afterward, Avia moved everything to an online portal.
“You didn’t think that was strange?” Beck asked.
“I thought she was modernizing.”
“Did you read the reports?”
“Not closely.”
Beck almost laughed.
Apparently financial avoidance was hereditary.
Marianne continued.
“About two years ago, I asked why the trust’s cash reserve had dropped.”
“What did she say?”
“That there had been an emergency family loan.”
Beck looked at Talia.
“To whom?”
“She said you.”
Silence.
Talia closed her eyes.
The lie had not only been told to her.
Avia had used the fabricated loan to explain missing trust money to other beneficiaries.
That changed the problem.
Rebecca immediately understood the significance.
“If Avia represented to beneficiaries that the trust loaned money to Beck, and Beck received none of it, we now have a reporting issue separate from what she told Talia.”
The accountant who maintained the trust records agreed to speak with Rebecca after obtaining his own legal advice.
His name was Howard Lin.
He had worked with the Mercers for fourteen years.
Howard was visibly uncomfortable.
“Avia told me Beck requested confidentiality.”
Beck stared at him.
“Did you ever confirm that with me?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Your mother held managing authority.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Howard looked down.
“No.”
Again.
Another adult had accepted Avia’s authority because challenging it seemed unnecessary.
Howard produced an email.
Avia had written:
Beck is extremely embarrassed about needing support. Route all questions through me.
Talia stared at the sentence.
It was almost identical to what Avia told her.
Different audience.
Same weapon.
Shame.
Howard revealed something else.
The trust’s internal records initially classified the $286,000 as a temporary trustee advance.
Only later had the classification changed to a loan to Beck and Talia.
“When?” Rebecca asked.
Howard searched.
“Two days after Talia signed.”
Talia felt nauseated.
The money had been taken first.
Then Avia found someone vulnerable enough to make the paperwork fit.
Beck stood by the window.
“What happens now?”
Rebecca answered carefully.
“We get the full investment records if we’re entitled to them. We review the trust documents. We determine whether Avia exceeded her authority.”
“And the loan?”
“Do not assume you owe it just because Avia says you do.”
Talia’s eyes filled.
For seventeen months she had organized her life around that number.
$286,000.
A debt she believed she had created.
A secret she thought could destroy her marriage.
Rebecca looked at her.
“Talia, whatever else happened, signing without speaking to Beck was a mistake.”
“I know.”
“But a mistake is not the same as the story Avia built around it.”
That distinction changed something inside Talia.
May you like
She stopped feeling like a defendant.
And started asking questions.
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