Chapter 4 - What Margaret Had Been Funding
Whitmore Property Holdings belonged to Margaret.
After her husband died, she placed several rental properties and investment accounts into the trust. Daniel occasionally helped review the bookkeeping, but Margaret believed every withdrawal required her approval.
It did not.
Daniel had been transferring money from the trust into personal accounts using an authorization form Margaret signed years earlier for emergency management purposes.
He told Vanessa the money came from a performance bonus.
He told Claire his mother’s rentals were losing money and that he was helping cover repairs.
Both stories were false.
Margaret requested Daniel’s old tablet from the home-office desk.
His email remained logged in.
Claire hesitated.
“My attorney told me not to search through anything private.”
Margaret nodded.
“Then we won’t.”
She called her own trust attorney instead.
Within forty minutes, he confirmed Daniel had transferred more than two hundred seventy thousand dollars over twenty-two months.
Some paid for hotels.
Luxury travel.
A lease on the apartment where Vanessa now lived.
The black pickup in Claire’s driveway had also been purchased through the trust.
Margaret sat perfectly still after the call ended.
Claire expected her to cry.
She did not.
“Did you know?” Margaret asked.
“No.”
“He told me the children’s college accounts were fully funded.”
Claire looked toward the staircase.
“They aren’t.”
Margaret’s jaw tightened.
Daniel had not merely abandoned his wife for another woman.
He had used his mother’s money to finance the affair while leaving his children inside a house he had stopped paying to maintain.
Margaret looked toward the entry table.
“What is in the envelope?”
“Divorce papers.”
“Are they filed?”
“Tomorrow.”
May you like
Margaret placed the bank statement beside them.
“Add this.”
