Chapter 4 - The Audit
The morning sun brought no warmth, only clinical clarity. I left Savannah resting in the hotel suite and drove straight to my father’s old financial advisory firm, where an aging partner named Arthur Vance still held office.
Arthur looked stunned when I placed my father’s blue envelope on his mahogany desk. He read the faded pages twice, adjusting his glasses with trembling fingers.
“Your father came to me three days before he died, Christopher,” Arthur admitted quietly. “He suspected your mother was systematically embezzling from his corporate accounts to fund secret offshore holdings. He wanted to file for divorce and freeze her assets.”
“And the official autopsy?” I asked.
May you like
Arthur looked away. “Your mother handled all the hospital paperwork while you were away at college. There was no independent toxicology screening requested.”
My hands curled into tight fists. Bernice hadn't just been a nagging, abusive mother-in-law; she was a calculated criminal who had murdered my father to protect her lifestyle, and she was attempting to do the exact same thing to my wife and unborn child.
