Chapter 3 - The Money Daniel Thought No One Would Find
Vanessa stared at her phone as if it had betrayed her.
“That can’t be right.”
She refreshed the screen.
Then again.
Daniel’s shoulders had gone rigid.
“What does it say?”
“You know what it says.”
“I don’t.”
“My savings account has six hundred dollars in it.”
Rachel raised an eyebrow.
“How much was there before?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Seventy-eight thousand.”
Even I forgot my anger for a second.
Daniel immediately lowered his voice.
“Not here.”
Vanessa laughed sharply.
“You keep saying that whenever something goes wrong.”
“Because we’re in an airport.”
“You had no problem breaking up with your wife in an airport.”
Several people nearby looked over again.
Daniel reached for Vanessa’s elbow.
She pulled away.
“Did you move my money?”
“No.”
“You had access.”
“Because you gave it to me.”
“You said you were putting it into the investment account.”
Daniel glanced at me.
That tiny movement told me everything.
There was an investment account.
And Daniel did not want me to hear about it.
“What investment account?” I asked.
He ignored me.
Vanessa didn’t.
“The one he created for us.”
Daniel’s head snapped toward her.
“Stop.”
She stared.
“For our future.”
I felt cold.
“How much money did you give him?”
“Helen,” Daniel warned.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with anger.
“Everything.”
Daniel muttered something under his breath.
“What does everything mean?” Rachel asked.
Vanessa looked embarrassed.
“About one hundred and twenty thousand over the last three months.”
I stared at Daniel.
He earned well.
But not well enough to casually handle that amount of someone else’s money.
“What did you tell her?” I asked.
Daniel picked up his suitcase.
“We’re leaving.”
Vanessa did not move.
“What did you do with my money?”
“We’ll handle it at the hotel.”
“No.”
Her voice rose.
“No more hotel. No more cruise. No more later. Where is my money?”
Grace began fussing again.
Rachel gently rolled the stroller away from the tension.
I remained where I was.
Daniel saw me watching.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“You’re my husband.”
“Not for long.”
“Then until the paperwork is filed, financial activity absolutely concerns me.”
He laughed.
“You've suddenly become a lawyer?”
“No.”
I looked at Vanessa.
“But I know one.”
I called Evelyn’s estate attorney.
Thomas Greene.
He had given me his personal number after the trust was created.
He answered on the third ring.
“Helen?”
“Mr. Greene, I’m sorry to bother you.”
“What’s wrong?”
I looked straight at Daniel.
“I think Daniel may have been using Cedar Ridge Lane without my permission.”
Silence.
Then Thomas asked, “How?”
“He moved someone into it.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Hang up.”
I turned away.
“And I think there may be money involved.”
Thomas’s voice sharpened.
“Helen, where are you?”
“The airport.”
“Is Daniel with you?”
“Yes.”
“Do not sign anything.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not transfer property. Do not give him access to any documents. And call your bank as soon as you leave.”
My heart skipped.
“Why?”
Another pause.
“Helen, I need to check something before I say more.”
“What?”
“I received an unusual electronic request last week involving the trust.”
I stopped breathing.
“What request?”
Daniel’s face changed.
He could hear.
Thomas continued.
“Someone attempted to obtain authorization to borrow against Cedar Ridge.”
My knees felt weak.
“That’s impossible.”
“It was rejected because the trust requires your verified signature.”
Daniel grabbed his suitcase handle.
“I’m done with this.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“You tried to borrow against her house?”
“No.”
Thomas heard the question.
“Helen?”
“Yes.”
“Get somewhere safe. I’m going to call you back.”
The line ended.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then I asked Daniel, “Did you forge my signature?”
His face went blank.
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“Did you submit a loan request using Cedar Ridge as collateral?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You told me that property was financing our new business.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
That was mistake number three.
“What business?” I asked.
Vanessa’s voice was quieter now.
“He said he was opening a boutique travel company.”
I almost laughed.
Daniel had never mentioned wanting to own a travel company.
“He said the cruise gave him connections.”
“Vanessa.”
“He said we’d organize luxury tours.”
“Vanessa, shut up.”
She recoiled.
I had never heard Daniel speak to another woman that way.
But I had heard him use that tone with me.
Usually when I questioned a credit card charge.
Or asked why money was missing from savings.
Things that seemed small at the time.
Things I had explained away.
Vanessa stared at him.
“Don’t speak to me like that.”
Daniel softened immediately.
“Baby, I’m stressed.”
The word hit me like a slap.
Baby.
He had said it naturally.
Repeatedly, probably.
The same word he had used for me.
He reached toward her.
She backed away.
“Where is my money?”
“It’s invested.”
“In what?”
“A private fund.”
“Show me.”
“I can’t access it from here.”
“Why not?”
He had no answer.
My phone buzzed.
A banking notification.
I looked down.
Unusual activity detected.
For one second, I couldn’t process it.
Then another alert arrived.
Then another.
I opened our joint bank account.
My stomach dropped.
Three transfers had been initiated that morning.
$14,000.
$9,500.
$22,000.
All pending.
Destination:
A company called Blue Meridian Holdings LLC.
I showed Rachel.
Her eyes widened.
“Call the bank.”
Daniel stepped toward me.
“What are you doing?”
“Stopping transfers.”
His face changed.
“Helen, don't.”
That was the closest thing to a confession I needed.
I called immediately.
A fraud specialist answered after several minutes.
I explained that I had not authorized the transfers.
She froze the account.
Then asked whether I recognized Blue Meridian Holdings.
“No.”
Daniel said, “Helen.”
The specialist continued.
“The transfers were initiated using valid account credentials.”
“I didn’t make them.”
“Do you have another authorized user?”
I looked at Daniel.
“My husband.”
She placed me on hold.
Daniel ran a hand through his hair.
“You’re overreacting.”
“Forty-five thousand dollars is leaving our account.”
“It’s being moved temporarily.”
“To a company I’ve never heard of?”
“You always said you wanted our money invested.”
“Not stolen.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Blue Meridian.”
His face shifted.
She whispered, “That’s the company you told me was ours.”
Everything stopped.
Rachel actually said, “Wow.”
I looked between them.
“You told Vanessa that company was hers?”
Vanessa nodded slowly.
Daniel said, “It’s complicated.”
I felt strangely calm now.
The shock was too large for panic.
“So you took her money.”
“I didn’t take anything.”
“You’re taking ours.”
“It's not taking if I’m on the account.”
“And you tried to borrow against my property.”
“That’s an assumption.”
“Using my signature?”
“I said I didn’t forge anything.”
The bank representative returned.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“We have stopped the transfers.”
I closed my eyes.
Relief washed through me.
“There is another issue.”
My relief vanished.
“What?”
“There were four successful transfers from the account over the past two months.”
I looked at Daniel.
“How much?”
“Approximately sixty-three thousand dollars.”
Rachel cursed under her breath.
I gripped the phone.
“Where did they go?”
“To the same business.”
Blue Meridian Holdings.
Daniel looked toward the exit.
Rachel noticed.
“Don’t even think about it.”
He gave her a cold stare.
“I can leave whenever I want.”
Vanessa lifted her suitcase handle.
“Not with me.”
Daniel turned.
“Vanessa.”
“I want my money.”
“I told you it’s invested.”
“Then prove it.”
“I will.”
“When?”
“When we get settled.”
She laughed.
“You don't have a hotel reservation, do you?”
Daniel’s silence answered.
Vanessa’s face drained.
“You said we were going straight to Cedar Ridge.”
I folded my arms.
“He was.”
Vanessa looked humiliated.
Then angry.
“What was the plan, Daniel? Walk into her house and tell her to leave?”
Daniel said nothing.
I knew the answer anyway.
He had probably expected me to be emotionally destroyed.
He expected me to sign whatever he placed in front of me.
He expected me to believe he held all the power.
Perhaps he thought caring for three infants would make me desperate enough to accept anything.
What Daniel failed to understand was that four months without him had changed me.
I had spent nights alone in a hospital chair beside incubators.
I had learned how to feed three premature newborns on two hours of sleep.
I had handled insurance companies, pediatric appointments, mortgage payments, and emergencies without him.
The woman he left behind would have begged him to stay.
The woman standing in the airport no longer wanted him back.
The bank representative advised me to file a police report.
I agreed.
Daniel exploded.
“You're calling the police over a marital disagreement?”
“Unauthorized financial transfers are not a marital disagreement.”
“You’re trying to ruin me.”
I stared at him.
“No, Daniel.”
I looked toward our daughters.
“You managed that without my help.”
Rachel drove us home.
Daniel and Vanessa left separately.
At least I assumed they did.
I didn’t care.
When we reached my house, I carried the babies inside one at a time.
My hands were trembling by then.
The adrenaline was fading.
Rachel made coffee while I fed Lucy.
For almost ten minutes, neither of us spoke.
Then she said, “You know this is bigger than cheating.”
“I know.”
“Do you think he’s been planning this?”
“I don't know.”
My phone rang.
Thomas Greene.
I answered immediately.
“Helen, I confirmed something.”
My stomach tightened.
“The trust loan attempt?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“The documents submitted electronically included what appeared to be your signature.”
I closed my eyes.
“So he forged it.”
“There’s more.”
I waited.
“The application listed Cedar Ridge as your primary residence.”
“It isn’t.”
“I know.”
“And there’s an attached statement claiming you intended to transfer ownership to Daniel.”
My heart pounded.
“I never signed anything like that.”
“I suspected as much.”
Rachel was watching me.
Thomas continued.
“Helen, I need you to listen carefully. I’ve already notified the financial institution that the paperwork is disputed.”
“Okay.”
“But when I reviewed the trust records, I found another document.”
“What document?”
“One submitted three months ago.”
The exact time Daniel had been away.
“What does it say?”
Thomas hesitated.
“It claims you appointed Daniel as financial power of attorney.”
I stood so quickly that Lucy startled in my arms.
“I did what?”
“It appears notarized.”
“I never signed that.”
“I know.”
My mouth went dry.
“Who notarized it?”
“That’s why I called.”
Thomas gave me the name.
Michelle Cole.
Cole.
The same last name as Vanessa.
I sat down slowly.
“Thomas... Daniel’s girlfriend is named Vanessa Cole.”
There was silence.
Then Thomas said something that made my entire body go cold.
“Helen, Michelle Cole is Vanessa’s mother.”
May you like
And suddenly I realized that the woman at the airport might not have been an innocent mistress who had simply believed Daniel’s lies.
Her family may have been involved from the beginning.
