Chapter 14 - AFTER EMMA
The phrase followed me everywhere.
After Emma.
After what?
After I signed?
After I lost my company shares?
After I died?
Rachel hated speculation, so she focused on paper.
The paper was bad enough.
A forensic accountant traced $250,000 from Bennett Family Holdings into an offshore account created in Leonard’s name.
The transfer had been scheduled, not completed.
Payment date: eight days after our Sunday dinner.
The same day the fake share loan would have gone into default.
Peter, my uncle, stared at the timeline in Rachel’s conference room.
“They wanted the shares first.”
Rachel nodded. “Then something was supposed to happen.”
I thought of my brakes.
My hands went cold.
Then Claire spoke from the end of the table.
“There’s another schedule.”
She opened a spreadsheet recovered from Michael’s deleted files.
It listed company transfers by code names.
One line read: E EXIT.
Amount: $250,000.
Same date.
I closed my eyes.
The affair suddenly seemed almost small.
Michael hadn’t just cheated on me.
He had spent months turning my grief, money, medical history, and marriage into components of a plan.
A detective entered the room.
“We found Leonard.”
Everyone stood.
“Where?”
“Indiana. State police stopped him near Gary.”
“Did he talk?”
The detective nodded.
“He says Patricia ordered the brake-line sabotage.”
My knees weakened.
“And Michael?”
The detective’s expression changed.
“Leonard says Michael didn’t know about the brakes.”
For one irrational second, relief moved through me.
May you like
Then the detective continued.
“He says Michael had a different plan for you.”
