Marcus spoke quietly.
“He’s been draining it for almost four years. Since before we got married.”
“He forged your signature, twice that I can prove, on transfers tied to a trust your grandfather set up. The one your father never told you about because he wanted Gabriel to grow into it first.”
“I said stop.”
Marcus spoke quietly.
“Why didn’t she come to me?”
“I flagged the activity nineteen months ago. I came to Kayla because Gabriel had named her as a contact, and you were traveling for work. She asked me to keep looking.”
“Why didn’t she come to me?”
The room went still.
“Because you love him,” Kayla said.
I turned to her.
“I know how you defended him when he wrecked your car at nineteen.”
“You think I would have protected him? Over evidence? Over my own name on a forged document?”
“I think you would have warned him before you believed me. Just once. Just enough for him to burn the trail.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know you, Daniel. I know how you defended him when he wrecked your car at nineteen. I know how you covered his tuition when your father stopped paying. I know that when love is the thing being tested, you always choose him.”
“So you chose him for me.”
I stared at the folder.
“I chose to get close enough to find proof he couldn’t deny. Marcus had the bank trail. I needed the documents Gabriel kept hidden at home — his laptop, the filing cabinet, the second set of books in his apartment. Getting close to him was the only way through those locks. It took seven months after Marcus came to me to get the documents out of that apartment. The day you walked in was the day I’d finally copied the last file.”
I stared at the folder.
“You destroyed my life.”
