Chapter 6 - THE MONEY I DIDN’T KNOW WE HAD LOST
I hired an attorney.
Then an accountant.
Returning to accounting after eleven years felt strangely familiar.
Numbers do not care how convincing a liar sounds.
They leave tracks.
Caleb had hidden accounts.
Credit cards.
Loans.
Transfers.
He had taken money from Emma’s education fund.
Forty-seven thousand dollars.
That hurt more than the affair.
More than the debt.
He stole from our daughter.
I sat with bank statements spread across my hospital table and found something else.
A payment of $14,800.
Three weeks before my crash.
To an automotive electronics consultant.
Detective Ortiz traced it.
The recipient initially claimed legitimate work.
Then police showed him Caleb’s messages.
He cooperated.
Caleb had asked detailed questions about disabling safety systems and making a mechanical failure difficult to distinguish from an accident.
The consultant claimed he refused to help once he understood the intent.
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But Caleb had learned enough.
Maybe too much.
