Chapter 5 - The Secret Claire Helped Create
Lakefront Materials Group belonged to no one Daniel knew.
On paper, it was owned by a small holding company registered in Illinois.
The holding company’s mailing address was a UPS store in Northbrook.
Meredith obtained the public filings before dinner.
The manager listed on the LLC paperwork was Thomas Price.
Vanessa’s older brother.
Daniel read the name aloud.
Claire sat at the far end of the office conference table.
“You knew.”
“I knew Thomas had a company.”
“Did you know fifty-eight thousand dollars went through my business to his?”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“I didn’t.”
Daniel wanted to believe her.
He no longer trusted the wanting.
Vanessa finally called at 6:12.
Daniel put her on speaker with Meredith present.
Vanessa sounded exhausted.
“Is Lily okay?”
“She’s with me.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“Not yet.”
A long pause.
Then Vanessa said, “You found Lakefront.”
Daniel looked at Meredith.
“Yes.”
Vanessa exhaled.
“That money wasn’t for Thomas.”
“It went to his company.”
“He let me use the account.”
“For what?”
“My mother.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“You routed stolen money through my company and your brother’s LLC to pay your mother’s bills?”
“The facility was going to move her.”
“Where?”
“A Medicaid bed in a nursing home almost an hour away.”
There was nothing theatrical in Vanessa’s voice.
Only shame.
“She finally knew the aides where she was. She had one window she liked. She could get to the bathroom without help. Daniel, I couldn’t put her through another move.”
Daniel remembered Judith at Thanksgiving, struggling to find the word for cranberry sauce.
He remembered Vanessa cutting her food without making a show of it.
He also remembered Lily behind his back while Vanessa’s hand covered her mouth.
“You stole from my daughter.”
“I borrowed money I believed I could replace.”
“You hid it through two businesses.”
“Because I knew how it looked.”
“How it looked?”
Meredith raised a hand, warning Daniel not to let the call become an argument.
Daniel forced himself to sit.
“Did Claire know?”
Vanessa went quiet.
Claire stared at the speaker.
“Vanessa,” Daniel said.
“I told Claire after the first transfer.”
Daniel looked at his sister.
Claire’s eyes filled immediately.
Not with surprise.
Vanessa continued.
“She told me I had to put it back before the quarterly statement.”
Daniel’s head turned slowly.
Claire whispered, “That’s not what I said.”
“You told me how the statements worked.”
“I told you Daniel would see it.”
“You told me which week.”
Claire stood.
“You were crying in my car. You told me Judith had three days.”
“And you helped me.”
“I told you once. One time.”
Daniel cut in.
“Helped her how?”
Neither answered.
He looked at Claire.
“What did you do?”
Claire gripped the edge of the table.
“I showed her how I’d moved the forty-two.”
Daniel stared at her.
The room felt physically smaller.
Claire’s voice dropped.
“I thought she was asking because she was scared we’d done something illegal with the company. I didn’t think she was going to copy it.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly through the speaker.
“You knew exactly why I was asking.”
“No.”
“You said, ‘If you ever had a true emergency, this is what the portal looks like.’”
Claire sat back down.
Daniel no longer knew which betrayal hurt more: Vanessa taking the money or Claire giving her the map.
Then Vanessa said something that changed the shape of it again.
“Ask Claire why she was so afraid I’d tell you about the payroll transfer.”
Daniel looked at his sister.
Claire whispered, “We already discussed that.”
“No,” Vanessa said. “You discussed forty-two thousand dollars.”
May you like
Daniel waited.
Vanessa continued.
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