Chapter 7 - Paper Trails

The forensic accountant’s name was Priya Shah, and she had the unnerving habit of becoming cheerful when numbers became ugly.

She spread twelve months of joint credit-card statements across Nathan’s conference table.

“Good news,” she said.

Nathan looked suspicious.

“You say that like a coroner.”

Priya ignored him.

“Most household spending is clean.”

I leaned forward.

“Most?”

She tapped five charges.

“Hotel bar. Private car. Jewelry store. Two restaurant charges.”

I recognized the dates immediately.

October fourteenth.

November second.

December eleventh.

January twenty-third.

And last week.

My stomach tightened.

“Those are the nights.”

Nathan looked at Priya.

“Can we tie them to Aaron?”

“The card is in his name on the joint account.”

“Business reimbursements?”

“That’s the interesting part.”

Priya pulled out another sheet.

“All five were later reimbursed by Prescott Global.”

Nathan’s expression changed.

“So he charged personal expenses to a joint card, then submitted them to the company?”

“Possibly. We need receipts and expense descriptions.”

I pointed to the jewelry-store charge.

“What was that?”

Priya looked at me carefully.

“Four thousand eight hundred dollars.”

“I can read the number.”

“I know.”

“Was it Jasmine?”

“We don’t know.”

Nathan said, “Do not decide the answer before evidence gives it to you.”

I hated that he was right.

Priya continued.

“The company reimbursement means this stops being just divorce discovery. If the expenses were falsely characterized as business, the board’s inquiry will care.”

“Do we tell them?”

Nathan shook his head.

“We produce what we are legally required to produce. We do not volunteer theories.”

“What if people lose jobs because we stay quiet?”

“That is not what is happening.”

“How do you know?”

“Because corporate investigators can obtain corporate expense records without your help.”

Priya nodded.

“They probably already have them.”

I looked again at the jewelry charge.

“What store?”

“Bell & Finch.”

I knew it.

Aaron had bought my anniversary bracelet there during our first year of marriage.

My phone rang.

Aaron.

Nathan looked at the screen.

“You can answer if you want.”

I hesitated.

Then I did.

“Hello.”

“Claire.”

His voice sounded exhausted.

“What?”

“I heard your side requested joint-account records.”

“My attorney did.”

“Did you find the Bell & Finch charge?”

I looked at Nathan.

He raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“It wasn’t for Jasmine.”

“Then who?”

“My mother.”

I blinked.

“What?”

“Her sixtieth birthday gift. A brooch.”

“Your mother turned sixty two years ago.”

Silence.

“Aaron?”

“It was a retirement gift.”

“She retired eighteen months ago.”

Another silence.

Nathan slowly reached for his legal pad.

I closed my eyes.

“Try again.”

“It was for you.”

I almost laughed.

“For me?”

“I bought earrings.”

“I never got earrings.”

“I know.”

“Why?”

“I returned them.”

“When?”

“The next week.”

“Then why wasn’t the charge reversed?”

“Because I exchanged them.”

“For what?”

He did not answer.

My chest went cold.

“For what, Aaron?”

“A watch.”

“For yourself?”

“Yes.”

I stared at the wall.

“Why did the company reimburse it?”

“That was a mistake.”

Nathan silently mouthed, Ask how.

“How?”

“My assistant bundled receipts from the dinner trip. The jewelry receipt got included.”

“And you never corrected it?”

“I didn’t notice.”

“Four thousand eight hundred dollars appeared in your checking account and you didn’t notice?”

“I make a lot of reimbursements.”

I covered the phone.

Nathan whispered, “Stop. Don’t interrogate him for free.”

I nodded.

“Aaron, talk to your lawyer.”

“Claire, please.”

“No.”

“I need you to understand.”

“I understand more every day.”

I hung up.

Priya was staring at the statements.

“What?”

She pointed to the reimbursement.

“It didn’t go to your checking account.”

“Where did it go?”

“Prescott reimbursed the joint card directly.”

Nathan leaned closer.

“So Aaron may genuinely not have noticed.”

“That helps him?”

“On intent, maybe.”

I felt suddenly tired.

“This is becoming ridiculous.”

“No,” Nathan said. “This is becoming specific.”

I looked at him.

He tapped the paper.

“Specific facts are how you stop telling yourself a story and start understanding what happened.”

Priya pulled another file.

“There is more.”

“Of course there is.”

“Three car-service charges on the company account ended at Jasmine Cole’s address.”

Nathan’s pen stopped.

“Dates?”

She read them.

November second.

January twenty-third.

Last week.

I closed my eyes.

“So the company paid to take my husband to another woman’s apartment.”

Priya’s voice was careful.

“The company paid for transportation after company events. Whether that was improper depends on policy.”

Nathan nodded.

“But optics are terrible.”

“I’m done with optics,” I said.

They both looked at me.

“I don’t care how it looks. I care what happened.”

Nathan leaned back.

“That is useful. Hold onto it.”

My phone buzzed with an email from Mercer Vale’s counsel.

Nathan read the subject line over my shoulder.

“Trust records.”

I opened it.

The first attachment showed the original transfer date.

Eight months before I met Aaron.

The second showed every distribution.

Zero during the marriage.

The third showed voting rights.

Limited.

Nathan smiled.

“There.”

“What?”

“The part that matters.”

He turned the laptop toward me.

“Your grandfather’s gift remained exactly what you said it was.”

I looked at the documents.

For the first time in days, something felt clean.

Not easy.

Not painless.

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Just true.

And I was beginning to understand how much I needed that.