Chapter 7 - The Son I Wouldn't Hear
"Black SUV," Theo told Bell. "Silver scratch on the back door. It belongs to Harlan Pike."
Pike was the developer who had offered to buy the marina three times. Every time I refused, he returned with more money and a different smile. Audrey called him a visionary. I called him a man who wanted private gates where the public used to walk.
At six that evening, my son Jonah came through the hospital door.
I hadn't seen him since the day I accused him of taking eighty thousand dollars from the company. He looked at the monitors first, then at me.
"You look terrible," he said.
"I've been swimming."
Neither of us laughed.
He sat without asking permission. "Delia told me what happened."
"I'm sorry I didn't call you myself."
"You stopped calling a year and a half ago, Dad. I'm used to it."
I let that land. "I believed the bank records Audrey showed me," I said. "I should have listened when you said they were wrong."
Jonah pulled a folded envelope from his pocket. Inside were copies of the transfer records I'd used to condemn him, plus a spreadsheet showing that the destination account belonged to a vendor created by Audrey's finance department.
"I couldn't prove it then," he said. "I was locked out before I could trace the rest. Now I can."
"Why didn't you bring this sooner?"
He stared at me. "I did. You told me Audrey wouldn't lie."
That was the worst sentence I'd heard all day because I remembered saying it.
I reached for his hand. Jonah hesitated, then gave it to me.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me tonight," I said. "I'm asking you to stay while we find the truth."
He nodded once.
Then he unfolded another page. "Dad, that eighty thousand wasn't the beginning. It was the test run. After you blamed me, they moved millions."
May you like
At the bottom was a signature authorizing the first transfer.
It looked exactly like mine.
