Chapter 15 - MICHAEL’S PLAN
Michael’s plan was cleaner.
No cut brake line. No accident.
He wanted me discredited, divorced, and financially cornered.
According to Leonard, Michael thought Patricia was “too dramatic.”
That would have been funny if it weren’t terrifying.
His plan was to trigger the dinner confrontation, record me, file the mental-health declaration, freeze my access to marital funds, and force me to sign a settlement before I could hire strong counsel.
Patricia had added the brake line without telling him.
Two monsters with competing strategies.
Rachel said it mattered legally.
Emotionally, it changed nothing.
At the detention center, Michael requested to see me.
I refused.
He sent a letter.
I refused to read it.
Then he sent one sentence through his attorney:
ASK EMMA WHO PAID RACHEL.
I called Rachel immediately.
“What does that mean?”
She went very still.
“My retainer came from you.”
“I know.”
Then she understood.
Two weeks earlier, when I hired her, I had paid from a small account Michael didn’t monitor.
The money in that account came from quarterly dividends on my Hale shares.
Rachel pulled the transaction.
The deposit was wrong.
Too large by $38,000.
“Someone added money to your account,” she said.
“Why?”
We traced it backward.
The transfer came from Bennett Development.
Michael’s company.
My stomach sank.
He had secretly moved company money into an account in my name.
Not enough to enrich me.
Enough to make it look like I was participating.
Rachel stared at the screen.
“He built an escape hatch.”
“If he got caught…”
“He was going to say you were part of the fraud.”
Then she found the memo attached to the transfer.
May you like
CONSULTING FEE — E. HALE.
I had never consulted for his company in my life.
