“No argument?”
A faint, embarrassed smile appeared. “I was going to argue.”
“What changed?”
She looked down at her hands.
“I’m done believing everything Dad says.”
Two days later, Marcus called.
He had spoken with Richard’s former wife, Teresa.
“She kept everything,” Marcus told me. “Divorce filings, emails, bank records.”
“What did she say?”
“That Richard used the same pattern during their marriage.”
I closed my eyes.
Marcus continued. “Several transfers you believed were educational payments were used to satisfy Richard’s obligations from the divorce settlement.”
My money had not merely supported his business.
It had been holding his entire false life together.
Before I could respond, my office phone rang.
Howard Whitaker, one of my oldest clients, was calling.
“Evelyn,” he said, his gravelly voice unusually tense. “Your husband left me a voicemail.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me you were declining.”
Then Howard paused.
“And he left the entire accusation recorded in his own voice.”
