Chapter 10 - Renee’s FatherRenee’s father, Charles Bennett, had distrusted Derek before anyone else.
For years Renee resented him for it.
“You never gave him a chance.”
Charles always answered:
“I gave him many. I simply did not confuse charm with character.”
At the time, Renee thought it was arrogance.
Maybe some of it was.
Charles was wealthy and controlling in his own way.
He liked certainty.
He judged quickly.
He and Derek clashed immediately.
But estate files revealed that Charles’s concerns were not entirely instinct.
Three years before his death, Derek asked Charles for a $500,000 investment in Westvale Commons.
Charles refused.
Derek then proposed borrowing against one of Zoey’s future accounts.
Charles refused again.
An email survived.
Derek:
The money eventually belongs to Zoey. Growing it through real estate benefits her.
Charles:
You are asking to risk a child’s protected assets in a project you control. No.
Derek:
You have never trusted me.
Charles:
This is not about trust. It is about conflicts of interest.
Renee read the exchange slowly.
Her father had understood something she did not.
Derek experienced boundaries as personal rejection.
If someone said no to a transaction, Derek heard:
You are not respected.
You are not important.
You are failing.
Then he searched for another route.
After Charles died, the strongest no disappeared.
Within months the first fraudulent distribution occurred.
Daniel found a memorandum from Charles’s estate lawyer.
Mr. Bennett requested additional monitoring of Zoey’s custodial assets due to concerns regarding Derek’s business leverage and repeated requests for access.
Renee stared.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Daniel answered:
“You were told the account required additional oversight.”
“I thought Dad was being controlling.”
“He may have been both controlling and correct.”
That was uncomfortable.
But true.
People did not need to be perfect to be right about one danger.
Renee visited her father’s grave alone.
She stood there feeling ridiculous.
“I’m sorry.”
Wind moved through the cemetery trees.
No answer.
Good.
The dead could not rescue her from responsibility.
“I defended him.”
Still nothing.
“I thought you were judging me.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Maybe you were.”
She stayed twenty minutes.
Then left.
No magical closure.
But she stopped treating her father’s distrust as an insult to her judgment.
Derek had built power by turning warnings into attacks.
Charles became controlling.
Julian became jealous.
Renee became paranoid.
Anyone questioning Derek became defective.
That pattern mattered more than any single financial record.
Meanwhile, prosecutors traced more stolen funds.
Total confirmed unauthorized withdrawals:
$1.02 million.
Recovered or frozen:
$380,000.
Potential net loss:
Approximately $640,000.
Leah explained some money had circulated between entities, creating double counting in early estimates.
Renee appreciated the correction.
Facts needed accuracy even when smaller numbers made headlines less dramatic.
The real loss was still enormous.
Then another fact surfaced.
Derek had paid $48,000 to a private investigator.
Renee stared.
“To follow Julian?”
“Yes.”
The investigator, Gavin Cross, had been hired to document supposed “financial misconduct and inappropriate contact with Zoey.”
Renee’s skin crawled.
Photographs showed Julian picking Zoey up from school.
Buying groceries.
Entering a bank.
Meeting Daniel.
Ordinary life reframed as suspicion.
One photo showed Julian hugging Zoey after a soccer match.
Derek had written:
Boundary issue.
Renee almost tore the page.
Instead she put it down.
Evidence.
Keep it.
The investigator said Derek repeatedly asked for material suggesting Julian was “too close” to Zoey.
Gavin refused to fabricate anything.
Derek became angry.
Then stopped paying him.
Gavin saved emails.
One read:
I don’t need perfect. I need something Renee can’t ignore.
That sentence explained the entire frame-up.
Derek did not need Julian convicted.
He needed Renee uncertain.
He needed one photograph.
One cufflink.
One fake message.
One question.
Enough doubt to fracture the marriage.
Enough chaos to distract from Zoey’s missing money.
May you like
The lake was where his manipulation became physical.
But the real weapon he trusted most had always been doubt.
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