Chapter 4 - THE DEBT MARK NEVER KNEW ABOUT
Mark read the guaranty three times.
His signature looked real.
Too real.
The document claimed he had personally guaranteed nearly half a million dollars in business debt for a company called Silver Creek Events LLC.
I had never heard of it.
Neither had he.
Rachel leaned over the desk. "Whose company is that?"
Mark searched the state business registry on his phone.
The owner appeared immediately.
Diane Mercer.
My mother-in-law.
"She forged my signature," Mark said.
Then I noticed handwriting on the inside flap of the folder.
Three dates.
Three amounts.
$125,000.
$180,000.
$175,000.
Rachel frowned. "Those add up to the loan."
Mark stared at the dates.
"No," he said. "Look at the first one."
It was dated six months after Lily was born.
His face went pale.
"That was when Mom said she needed money for Dad's medical bills. I gave her access to one of my old investment accounts so she could pay them directly."
"How much was in it?" I asked.
"About two hundred thousand."
I felt cold.
Mark had carried guilt about it for years.
"What if there were no bills?" Rachel asked.
No one answered.
A detective arrived thirty minutes later and asked whether Diane had threatened us before.
I almost said no.
Then I remembered the way she had treated Lily.
The cruel comments. The constant criticism. The private little punishments that always happened when nobody else was looking.
Maybe tonight had not been the first time Diane crossed a line.
Maybe it was simply the first time we caught her.
Mark opened the bottom desk drawer to look for the old investment records.
Instead, he found a small black flash drive taped underneath the drawer.
May you like
On it, in Diane's handwriting, were two words:
FOR CLAIRE.
