Chapter 3 - THE ACCOUNT WITH MY NAME ON IT
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
The bank statement remained on the table between us.
My name sat beneath the account number in black ink.
JESSICA VANCE.
Except the account wasn't mine.
I had never seen it.
I had never opened it.
And I had certainly never authorized three million dollars to move through it.
I looked at Rachel.
“What is this?”
“We're still investigating.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No,” she said. “It isn't.”
She pushed the statement toward me.
“The account was opened eighteen months ago.”
I looked at Luca.
His expression was unreadable.
“Who opened it?”
Rachel answered.
“Someone using your identification information.”
My stomach tightened.
“Was my signature used?”
“Yes.”
“Was it real?”
Rachel shook her head.
“It was digitally reproduced.”
Luca suddenly spoke.
“This is being misunderstood.”
I turned toward him.
“Then explain it.”
He didn't.
“You have thirty seconds.”
He stared at me.
“Jessi, the company was going through a complicated restructuring.”
“You created a bank account in my name.”
“It wasn't like that.”
“Then what was it like?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“It was temporary.”
“Three million dollars is temporary?”
His silence was enough.
Chloe stood near the windows, staring at the lake.
She had stopped pretending she wasn't frightened.
Rachel took another document from the folder.
“There are seventeen transfers into this account.”
“From where?”
“Vance Capital operating accounts.”
“How much?”
“Three million two hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars.”
I felt the room tilt.
“Where did the money go?”
Rachel looked at Luca.
Then at me.
“That's where things become complicated.”
I almost laughed.
Everything in my marriage had apparently become complicated the moment I started asking questions.
“Show me.”
She laid out the transaction records.
The money had moved through several accounts.
Some went to real estate companies.
Some went to luxury retailers.
Some went to credit-card accounts.
One went to a private aviation company.
Another went to a jewelry store.
And several went to an account belonging to Blue Ridge Hospitality Group.
I stared at the name.
“What is that?”
Luca didn't respond.
Rachel did.
“It's an entity established eleven months ago.”
“By whom?”
“Ryan Caldwell.”
I frowned.
“Who is Ryan Caldwell?”
Luca finally spoke.
“A business associate.”
Rachel looked at him.
“He's your brother-in-law's attorney.”
I turned toward Luca.
“My brother-in-law?”
“Nathan.”
My mouth went dry.
Nathan was Luca's older brother.
Madison's husband.
The family golden boy.
The one Evelyn constantly praised.
The one who was always “just about to have a breakthrough.”
The one whose business ventures somehow required emergency funding every few months.
I looked back at the documents.
“How much?”
Rachel pointed to the transactions.
“Approximately nine hundred thousand dollars.”
I stared.
“Nine hundred thousand went to Nathan?”
“Not directly.”
“Then where?”
“Through Blue Ridge Hospitality.”
I looked at Luca.
“What did he buy?”
Luca's silence lasted too long.
Rachel answered.
“A restaurant.”
I remembered Madison talking about it.
The new location.
The waterfront concept.
The private investors.
The expansion.
I had assumed Nathan financed it himself.
Apparently, he hadn't.
“How much did I pay?”
Rachel corrected me.
“How much did Luca move?”
I looked at her.
She held my gaze.
“You need to separate yourself from what he did.”
That sentence nearly broke something inside me.
Because for fourteen years, I had never done that.
If Luca succeeded, I said we succeeded.
If Luca failed, I worked harder.
If he made a mistake, I fixed it.
If his family needed money, I paid.
I had spent years treating his problems like they were our problems.
Now I was finally seeing the difference.
“What about Chloe?”
I asked.
Rachel hesitated.
I looked at the transactions again.
There it was.
A luxury jewelry payment.
A private spa membership.
A European hotel.
A designer boutique.
A monthly apartment lease in Charlotte.
I looked at Chloe.
Her face had gone completely white.
“You lived in that apartment?”
She swallowed.
“I—”
Luca interrupted.
“Don't.”
Chloe looked at him.
“You told me the company paid for it.”
“It did.”
She shook her head.
“You said it was part of my relocation package.”
I almost smiled.
“What relocation?”
She looked at me.
Luca said nothing.
Rachel answered for him.
“She was never an employee.”
Chloe stared at Luca.
“You told me I was going to be brought into the company.”
“I was.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“When?”
He had no answer.
Chloe's face changed.
The anger arrived slowly.
“You lied to me.”
Luca looked at her.
“This isn't about you.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Everything I've been living in for the last year was about me.”
She turned toward me.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
She looked down.
“I thought he was leaving you.”
“He was.”
“But?”
I glanced at Luca.
“But apparently he wanted to take the house with him.”
Chloe wiped her eyes.
“I didn't know.”
“I believe you.”
That surprised her.
It surprised me too.
Because despite everything, I didn't feel hatred toward her.
She had participated in the betrayal.
But she hadn't created the machine behind it.
Luca had.
And apparently, he had been running that machine for years.
Rachel gathered the papers.
“There is one more issue.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The account in your name wasn't just used to receive money.”
She slid one final document across the table.
“It was used to guarantee a loan.”
I read the amount.
$6.8 million.
My hands went cold.
“What loan?”
Rachel's voice became quieter.
“A commercial loan secured against the Lake Norman property.”
I looked at Luca.
“You borrowed six point eight million dollars against my house?”
He shook his head.
“It wasn't your house.”
Rachel corrected him.
“It was.”
Luca looked at me.
“Jessi, listen.”
“No.”
“I was going to pay it back.”
“When?”
“When the Charlotte project closed.”
“What Charlotte project?”
He said nothing.
Rachel answered.
“The project has already failed.”
My heart sank.
“How much is outstanding?”
“Six million two hundred thousand.”
I stared at the number.
The lake house suddenly felt different.
Not like a home.
Like a trap.
“Why didn't the bank take it?”
Rachel looked at me.
“Because the trust stopped them.”
I frowned.
“How?”
“The loan agreement required the trust to acknowledge the collateral.”
She paused.
“They never received that acknowledgment.”
I looked at Luca.
“You forged my signature.”
He didn't answer.
“Didn't you?”
His silence was confirmation.
I stepped away from the table.
For the first time that night, I felt something stronger than anger.
I felt clarity.
Everything suddenly made sense.
The affair.
The secret accounts.
The restaurant.
The jewelry.
The apartment.
The loan.
The house.
Luca hadn't brought Chloe into my home because he believed he was untouchable.
He had brought her there because he believed he had already won.
He thought the money was gone.
He thought the company was his.
He thought I would be too devastated to fight.
He had mistaken silence for weakness.
I looked at Rachel.
“What happens now?”
She answered carefully.
“That depends on how far you're willing to go.”
I looked at Luca.
He was standing beside the woman he had chosen over me.
For the first time, I didn't feel abandoned.
I felt free.
“Go as far as necessary.”
Luca's face hardened.
“You're destroying our marriage.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
I picked up the folder.
“You did that eleven months ago.”
I turned toward the door.
Rachel followed.
Behind us, Chloe whispered,
“Luca?”
He didn't answer.
I walked into the rain.
But before I reached my car, Rachel touched my arm.
“Jessi.”
I turned.
She lowered her voice.
“There is one thing you need to know before you confront Nathan and Madison.”
“What?”
“The three million dollars wasn't the largest amount transferred.”
I stared at her.
“What was?”
She looked toward the house.
“Your husband transferred another seven million dollars.”
My heart stopped.
“To whom?”
May you like
Rachel looked at me.
“We don't know yet.”
