Chapter 6: Everything He Didn't Expect
Patricia moved fast.
By noon she had submitted a formal preservation request to my employer, a fraud notification to the bank, and a letter to Daniel's attorney — whose name, it turned out, was already on file with the court for two previous divorce proceedings he had assisted.
Not family disputes.
Divorces.
Specifically, asset-concealment divorces.
Daniel had been planning this longer than three days.
Patricia told me that calmly, across her desk, while Ruth sat beside me and said nothing.
"How long?" I asked.
"Based on when he first retained that attorney — at least eight months."
Eight months.
I thought about the last eight months.
The way Daniel had started asking questions about my pension.
The way he'd suggested we consolidate our savings into a single account for simplicity.
The way Eleanor had started coming around more, always with a reason, always staying a little longer than necessary.
I had thought he was becoming more engaged.
More interested in our future together.
"I want to confront him," I said.
"Not yet," Patricia said.
"Right now, information is your advantage.
The moment he knows how much you know, he'll move to protect what's left."
"What is left?"
"Your salary — which HR has confirmed is still active, because the resignation has been flagged and suspended pending investigation.
Your share of the property.
And whatever he hasn't been able to transfer yet." She paused.
"There may be a second account."
Ruth looked up.
"A second account?"
"Eighteen thousand doesn't disappear into thin air.
It goes somewhere.
We're working on finding out where." Patricia looked at me.
"Vivienne Marsh has done this before.
She's careful.
But she made a mistake this time."
"What mistake?"
"She used her office's IP address to submit the resignation.
That connects her directly to the fraud.
She's not just a consultant now.
She's a participant."
I sat with that for a moment.
"Can I go home?" I said.
"Yes.
But take Ruth.
Don't be alone with Daniel or Eleanor.
Don't discuss what you know.
Don't react to anything they say." Patricia looked at me carefully.
"Can you do that?"
"Yes," I said.
I wasn't sure I believed it.
But I said yes.
Daniel was in the kitchen when we arrived.
He looked at Ruth and said nothing.
He looked at me and said, "We should talk."
"Okay," I said.
He glanced at Ruth.
"Alone," he said.
"She stays," I said.
His jaw tightened.
"Fine." He pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down, and for a moment he looked almost like the man I had married — tired, slightly uncertain, reaching for the right words.
"I made mistakes," he said.
"The way this was handled — it wasn't right."
I said nothing.
"I panicked.
My mother — she pushed things forward faster than I wanted.
The resignation, the account — I was going to tell you."
"When?"
"When things were more settled."
"When the money was already moved and my job was already gone."
He looked down.
"I know how it looks."
"Daniel.
Who is Vivienne Marsh to you?"
A pause.
Just long enough.
"A consultant."
"Try again."
His eyes came up slowly.
Something shifted in them — a calculation finishing.
"She's someone who helps people plan ahead," he said carefully.
"That's all."
Ruth's phone buzzed on the table.
She glanced at it and her expression didn't change, but she turned the screen so I could see it.
A text from Gary.
*Found the second account.
It's joint.
Her name is on it too.*
I looked at Daniel.
He was watching me read it.
He knew from my face that something had changed.
"Nora—"
"Her name," I said.
"Vivienne Marsh's name.
It's on an account with yours." I set my hands flat on the table.
"How long have you known her?"
He stood up.
Pushed the chair back.
"I think we should wait for my lawyer."
"Sit down, Daniel."
He didn't sit down.
May you like
He walked out of the kitchen, and I heard him on the phone before he'd even reached the hallway, his voice low and urgent, saying a name I now recognized.
Vivienne.
