Chapter 8 - The Invoices
The independent board meeting was held in a windowless office above the foundation's downtown headquarters. Ethan attended as chairman, not as Lily's guardian. Samir Cole, the interim finance lead, had printed twelve months of payments to Stillwater Outreach.
"These services were supposedly delivered weekly," Samir said. "But we have no signed clinical assessments, no treatment summaries, and no clear professional credentials for the person billing them."
"Vivienne said the papers were private," Ethan answered.
"Private doesn't mean nonexistent."
A board member named Deborah Hale leaned toward the spreadsheets. "How much?"
"The invoices for Lily alone are significant. The larger issue is the other Stillwater contracts. We need an outside forensic review before we state any total."
Ethan agreed. The board voted to freeze new payments pending verification and appoint auditors who did not report to him or Vivienne. The vote passed, but two members asked whether he should have noticed earlier. He didn't argue.
Meanwhile I gave Detective Chen a copy of my notebook and explained each entry. She asked which observations I had made firsthand and which came from staff. She marked them differently.
"It's important not to turn a suspicion into something you say you saw," she told me.
"I won't."
At the estate, Leo found a copy of the engagement seating plan in the printer queue. Vivienne had scheduled herself beside the kitchen-service door, despite an earlier request to sit near Ethan. It could have been coincidence, but the layout explained how she reached Lily's milk without crossing the ballroom.
Ethan called me that night. "Vivienne told the board there was a medical program Nora approved before she died."
"Did Nora approve it?"
"Samir can't find a record. But Vivienne says there's a letter with Nora's signature."
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I looked at the drawing Lily had made of her mother. Nora's handwriting was careful and round. The words in the copied letter Ethan forwarded were nothing like it.
The auditors had just been handed a document that might be false.
