Chapter 14 - THE WEDDING MONEY
I stared at the message until the letters blurred.
Who paid for Emily’s wedding.
The answer seemed obvious.
David and I had.
At least, that was what I believed.
We had created a wedding account ten months earlier.
I transferred money from savings.
David said he contributed an equal amount from an investment distribution.
I had managed the payments.
Florist.
Venue.
Catering.
Music.
Photography.
Every invoice came from the wedding account.
Caroline asked.
“Can you access the source records?”
“Yes.”
I opened the banking app.
The wedding account showed two major deposits.
Mine.
$42,000.
David’s.
$50,000.
Nothing unusual.
Then Daniel asked.
“Where did his deposit originate?”
I opened the transaction details.
An account ending in 8841.
I did not recognize it.
My stomach dropped.
The forensic accountant traced it within hours.
The money came through one of the same entities connected to Harbor View.
I felt sick.
“My daughter’s wedding was paid for with that money?”
“Part of it,” Caroline said.
“Potentially.”
I stood and walked away from the table.
“I need air.”
Outside the office, I sat on a bench.
Cars moved through the street.
People walked with coffee.
A delivery driver laughed with someone across the road.
Normal life continued.
Rebecca came outside.
She sat beside me.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have asked.”
“How?”
“David said it was an investment distribution.”
“That is not suspicious.”
“It is now.”
“Everything looks suspicious after you know the ending.”
I looked at her.
She had tears in her eyes.
“I should have told you about Christmas.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
She nodded.
We sat silently.
Then I asked.
“Did he always lie?”
She looked confused.
“What?”
“When we were young.”
“You knew him before I did.”
“Was he always like this?”
Rebecca thought for a long time.
“He always hated being wrong.”
“That isn’t the same as lying.”
“No.”
“But when we were kids, if he broke something, he could explain for twenty minutes why it was technically someone else’s fault.”
I almost laughed.
“That sounds familiar.”
“He wasn’t evil, Margaret.”
“I don’t think he is evil.”
“What do you think?”
I looked at the traffic.
“I think he made selfish choices for so long that eventually he built a life requiring everyone else to be wrong.”
Rebecca wiped her face.
That afternoon, Emily called from Italy.
I had not told her about the finances.
Not yet.
She immediately sensed something.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“You’re doing the voice.”
“What voice?”
“The everything-is-fine voice.”
I smiled.
“You are supposed to be on your honeymoon.”
“I can be married in Italy and still know my mother.”
I told her enough.
Not everything.
She was quiet.
Then she said.
“Was my wedding paid for with stolen money?”
“We do not know that any money was stolen.”
“Mom.”
“We don’t.”
“That matters.”
She breathed slowly.
“What do I do?”
“Nothing.”
“I mean it.”
“Nothing.”
“This is not yours to fix.”
She laughed once.
“You finally hear yourself?”
I stopped.
She continued.
“You spent my entire life telling me problems aren’t mine to carry.”
“And then you carry all of them.”
I looked down.
“I’m trying to change.”
“Good.”
“Because I’m not coming home from Italy to find you protecting Dad from consequences.”
I smiled sadly.
“I don’t think that is possible anymore.”
That night, David sent me a photograph.
Our wedding day.
Twenty-eight years earlier.
We were standing outside the church.
I looked twenty-three.
He looked twenty-five.
We were smiling as though the future belonged to us.
Under the photograph, he wrote.
We were happy once.
I stared at it for a long time.
Then I answered.
Yes.
May you like
We were.
And that does not excuse what you did later.
