Chapter 13 - Harrison’s VersionHarrison called Jocelyn’s caseworker from a prepaid phone.
He asked to speak directly to his daughter.
Claire refused.
“You are currently wanted for questioning and subject to restrictions.”
“I’m her father.”
“You are not entitled to private contact.”
“I can explain.”
“Explain to your lawyer.”
“I’m trying to prevent Jocelyn from learning a distorted version of her mother.”
Claire recorded the call.
“What distortion?”
“Miriam hated me.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“Natalie participated in Briar decisions.”
Claire paused.
“Are you accusing Natalie of fraud?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“She knew we were using aggressive accounting.”
“Aggressive accounting?”
“You people love words like theft because they simplify things.”
Claire nearly laughed.
“Two-point-seven million dollars was diverted.”
“And much of it went back into operating expenses.”
“Through shell companies owned by you and Damon?”
Silence.
Claire continued.
“Where are you?”
Harrison hung up.
That evening Malcolm played part of the recording for Miriam.
She shook her head.
“He’ll keep changing the frame.”
“What does that mean?”
“When Natalie confronted him, he never said, ‘I didn’t move the money.’ He said, ‘You don’t understand why I moved it.’”
Malcolm nodded.
“He’s starting the same defense.”
“Necessity.”
“Exactly.”
Jocelyn overheard from the hallway.
“What necessity?”
Miriam turned.
“You should be asleep.”
“I’m not.”
Malcolm looked at Miriam.
Then at Jocelyn.
“We can explain some of it.”
Jocelyn sat.
Malcolm kept it simple.
Harrison claimed Briar was struggling financially years ago.
He said the shell vendors let him move money quickly and protect projects from creditors.
Some transfers may indeed have covered legitimate costs.
But he also used company funds for personal investments.
Damon did too.
“What did Mom do?” Jocelyn asked.
“She discovered it.”
“Did she take money?”
“No evidence of that.”
Jocelyn exhaled.
She had been frightened by Harrison’s note.
Natalie lied to Miriam too.
“What did Mom lie about?”
Miriam looked down.
“There were things she didn’t tell me.”
“Like?”
“That she met Harrison after their divorce.”
Jocelyn frowned.
“Why?”
“She wanted him to sign over some Briar voting rights.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
Miriam hesitated.
“After she married Damon, she continued communicating with Harrison about the company.”
Jocelyn stared.
“So Harrison’s right.”
“About one thing.”
“Mom hid stuff from you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Jocelyn thought.
Maybe because Miriam had once called her obsessed.
Maybe Natalie learned that even people who loved you could fail under pressure.
The truth was becoming more complicated without becoming less true.
Harrison and Damon still exploited them.
Natalie could still have made mistakes.
Both could coexist.
Jocelyn whispered:
“I don’t need Mom to be perfect.”
Miriam’s eyes filled.
“That’s a very hard thing to learn at eleven.”
“I had practice.”
The next breakthrough came from Natalie’s voice recorder.
Financial investigators decrypted a date-coded file.
Natalie’s voice.
Then Harrison’s.
She had secretly recorded a conversation eight months before her death.
Harrison:
“You married the man who helped me do it.”
Natalie:
“I married the man who convinced me he had stopped.”
Harrison laughed.
“You always need one villain and one rescue.”
Natalie’s voice remained calm.
“No. That was my mistake.”
Silence.
Then:
“There were two villains.”
Jocelyn listened only after her therapist and Claire agreed.
Harrison’s voice continued.
“If you turn those records over, Briar collapses.”
Natalie:
“Then it collapses.”
“The girls lose everything.”
“That’s not true.”
“Their trust is tied to Briar.”
“Not anymore.”
A pause.
Harrison’s voice changed.
“What did you do?”
Natalie:
“I moved their inheritance beyond both of you.”
Harrison swore.
“What did you sign?”
“Nothing you can undo.”
Jocelyn looked at Miriam.
The trust had not merely been an estate-planning choice.
Natalie had created it specifically to keep Harrison and Damon away from the girls’ assets.
The recording continued.
Harrison:
“You think Miriam can protect them?”
Natalie:
“I think they need adults who don’t see them as leverage.”
The room went silent.
Jocelyn looked away.
Her mother had known.
Before she died, Natalie knew both men might use the girls.
Maybe not physically.
Maybe not exactly as it happened.
But she had known enough.
Malcolm’s phone rang.
He stepped away.
When he returned, his face was serious.
“We found Harrison’s SUV.”
“Where?” Miriam asked.
“Outside Pittsburgh.”
“And Harrison?”
“No.”
“What was inside?”
Malcolm looked at Jocelyn.
Then at Miriam.
“Several boxes from Unit C-17.”
“Evidence?”
“Mostly copies.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
A photograph of Miriam’s rented house.
May you like
Taken that morning.
Harrison had been watching them.
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