Chapter 8 - Bellweather Residential ServicesThe forensic review began forty-eight hours later.
Colin brought in an outside accounting firm.
No one connected to Elliot.
No one recommended by anyone inside the family office.
The preliminary numbers were worse than Colin expected.
Bellweather Residential Services had billed his accounts for eighteen months.
Kitchen upgrades.
Roof repairs.
Security systems.
Interior design.
Landscaping.
Work that either cost far less than invoiced or had never occurred.
Total payments:
$1,684,300.
Colin stared at the spreadsheet.
“That’s impossible.”
The forensic accountant shook her head.
“It’s documented.”
“Who approved them?”
“Your system shows Elliot initiated most of them. Your electronic credentials appear as secondary authorization.”
“I didn’t approve them.”
“We believe you.”
“Believe doesn’t matter.”
“No. Logs do.”
She turned the laptop.
Several approvals originated from devices Colin did not own.
One matched an IP address at the mansion.
Another came from Elliot’s office.
Colin leaned forward.
“How did they authenticate?”
“We’re still analyzing that.”
Colin remembered Valerie borrowing his phone.
“Can I use yours? Mine is charging.”
Small things.
Normal things.
The kind that made betrayal possible.
The accountant continued.
“There’s also a relationship between Bellweather and a company called VLK Events Group.”
Colin looked up.
Valerie’s old event-planning business.
She had told him it closed years ago.
“What relationship?”
“Common mailing address.”
Colin felt cold.
“The business failed.”
“Officially.”
“And unofficially?”
“VLK still has outstanding judgments.”
“How much?”
“More than seven hundred thousand dollars.”
Colin laughed once.
Not from amusement.
Valerie had told him before their marriage that the company left her with ninety-two thousand dollars in debt.
He had paid it.
Not because she asked.
Because he wanted their marriage to begin cleanly.
Apparently it had begun with a lie.
The accountant pointed to another column.
“At least four hundred and ten thousand dollars from Bellweather ultimately went to creditors connected to Valerie.”
“So I paid her hidden debts.”
“Indirectly, yes.”
“And the rest?”
“Still tracing.”
Colin stood.
He walked toward the window.
Below, Sienna sat beside Mercedes on the terrace.
Mercedes was helping her transplant small flowers into a ceramic pot.
Sienna smiled at something she said.
It was the first smile Colin had seen in days.
The accountant closed one folder.
“There’s another issue.”
Colin did not turn.
“What?”
“Elliot’s access remains active at Northbridge Family Office.”
“Not anymore.”
“You froze it yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“But twelve minutes before the freeze, he downloaded a large archive.”
Colin turned.
“What archive?”
“Vendor records, property records, trust correspondence.”
“Where did he send it?”
“We don’t know.”
Colin called his attorney immediately.
Elliot had not returned calls.
His office was empty.
His company phone had been left on his desk.
That looked dramatic.
But the truth was less cinematic.
Elliot had gone home.
His lawyer had contacted investigators.
He was refusing interviews.
For now.
Colin hated him more for how ordinary it was.
No escape.
No chase.
Just attorneys.
Silence.
And paperwork.
That evening, Colin sat with Sienna on the floor of her room.
She was rebuilding a miniature wooden house she and Audrey had once assembled together.
“Does Valerie have to come back?” she asked.
“No.”
“Ever?”
“Not while I have anything to say about it.”
Sienna placed a tiny window into the model.
“What if a judge says she can?”
Colin realized she had been listening more carefully than everyone assumed.
“We’re asking the court to make sure you’re protected.”
She nodded.
Then she asked:
“Are you divorcing her?”
Colin did not hesitate.
“Yes.”
Sienna looked at him.
“Because of me?”
“No.”
Her eyes searched his.
“Because of what she did.”
Sienna returned to the model house.
Colin waited.
Then she whispered, “She said you would pick her.”
His chest tightened.
“Over you?”
Sienna nodded.
“She said grown-ups choose wives. Kids grow up and leave.”
Colin closed his eyes.
When he opened them, Sienna was watching.
“I should have seen more,” he said.
She did not understand everything those words meant.
That was okay.
He touched the roof of the little wooden house.
“I am never choosing someone’s cruelty over you.”
Sienna looked down.
Then slid the miniature house toward him.
“Can you hold this?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t let it move.”
Colin held it steady while she attached the next wall.
Downstairs, his phone vibrated.
A message from the forensic accountant.
They had found where another $620,000 had gone.
Not to creditors.
Not to Valerie.
May you like
To an investment account opened under a trust name Colin had never seen.
And the beneficiary listed on the application was Valerie.
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