The following Monday, a woman named Rachel Dunn arrived at Mara's office carrying a canvas shopping bag.
She was in her early forties, with short brown hair and a small scar above her left eyebrow. I recognized her from company photographs. She had worked as Julian's financial administrator for almost five years.
Until that morning, I had never spoken to her privately.
Mara introduced us in the conference room.
Rachel remained standing until Mara invited her to sit. She placed the shopping bag on the table and kept one hand wrapped around its strap.
"I wasn't sure whether I should come here," she said.
"Why did you decide to?" Mara asked.
Rachel looked at me.
"Because I think Vivian deserves to know what happened."
I waited.
She opened the bag and removed a thick ledger, several folders, and a small external drive.
"I kept copies of the old records," she explained. "Not everything. Just the files I thought might matter if the company ever got audited."
Mara didn't touch the materials immediately.
"How did you obtain these?"
"They were part of my work. Some were printed copies, and some were exported from the accounting system."
"Did you have authorization to retain them?"
Rachel looked uncomfortable.
"Not specifically. But I was worried about what was happening."
She described the changes she had noticed during the previous year. Invoices were being approved without supporting documentation. Payments were being split into smaller amounts and routed through unfamiliar vendors. When she asked Julian for explanations, he told her that the transactions were confidential restructuring arrangements.
At first, she accepted the explanations.
Then the amounts grew.
Rachel showed us a series of ledger entries. The same company names appeared repeatedly: Northbridge Property Group, Vantage Holdings, and several small consulting firms.
Some payments were legitimate. Others lacked invoices, purchase orders, or evidence of services.
"Did you report this to anyone?" I asked.
"I tried to speak with the external accountant."
"What happened?"
"He told me to put my concerns in writing. I did. A week later, Julian called me into his office and said I was making the company look incompetent."
She swallowed.
"He told me that if I couldn't follow instructions, I should find another job."
"Did you leave?"
"Not immediately. I needed the income, and I thought things might improve."
Mara examined the ledger.
"Why now?"
Rachel looked down at her hands.
"Because Julian called me from detention."
I felt my shoulders stiffen.
"What did he say?"
"He wanted me to confirm that the transfers were routine business expenses. He said the investigators were misunderstanding the accounts and that I could clear everything up."
"Did he threaten you?"
"Not directly. But he reminded me that my name was on several approvals."
I studied her face.
"Was it?"
"Yes. Some payments were approved through my login. But Julian had access to my credentials."
Mara made a note.
"Did you knowingly approve fraudulent transactions?"
Rachel shook her head.
"I approved payments that I believed were legitimate. I didn't create the invoices, and I didn't know the money was being diverted."
Her voice trembled.
"I know how that sounds."
"It sounds like something the investigators need to examine," Mara said. "We're not going to decide your role based on a single conversation."
Rachel nodded.
She opened the ledger to a page marked with a yellow tab.
"This is the part I wanted you to see."
A handwritten note appeared in the margin beside a payment of $75,000 to Northbridge Property Group.
The writing was Julian's.
Hold until Vivian's transfer clears. Then release.
I stared at the sentence.
The date was two months before the money I had transferred to purchase the debt.
For a moment, the conference room seemed to become unnaturally quiet.
"Is this his handwriting?" I asked.
Rachel nodded.
"I saw him write it."
Mara photographed the page and asked Rachel to explain the surrounding entries.
The payment had been delayed twice. Each time, Julian had instructed Rachel to hold the transfer until another source of money arrived.
One of those sources was a loan from a private lender. Another was a payment from Elena's company.
The final instruction had been added after Julian began asking me to provide financial assistance.
"He was waiting for my money," I said.
Rachel looked at me.
"I think so."
The implication was difficult to ignore. Julian might have intended to use my contribution not only to rescue his company but also to support a chain of payments that had begun years earlier.
Mara closed the ledger.
"We need to get this to the investigators immediately."
Rachel agreed to provide a formal statement and hand over the external drive. Before leaving, she turned toward me.
"I should have spoken to you sooner."
I considered her apology.
"Why didn't you?"
She hesitated.
"Because I liked working for him. He was generous when things were going well. He helped me when my mother was ill. I didn't want to believe he was doing anything wrong."
I understood the temptation to protect a version of someone that no longer matched reality.
But I also knew that good memories didn't make financial misconduct disappear.
"Thank you for coming now," I said.
After Rachel left, Mara spent the next two hours reviewing the ledger and organizing the evidence.
At 3:20, the investigator called.
He had received the materials and confirmed that the handwritten instruction was significant. The team would compare it with verified samples from Julian's records and examine the surrounding transactions.
Then he asked a question that made me sit upright.
"Have you ever heard of a trust account connected to your father's estate that was administered outside the main trust?"
I frowned.
"No. Why?"
"One of the older transfers appears to have originated from an account associated with a family investment vehicle."
I looked at Mara.
"What family investment vehicle?"
The investigator said the name was still being verified. He promised to send the relevant documentation once the bank records arrived.
When the call ended, Mara opened the estate folder again.
We reviewed the records from my father's final years, searching for references to private investment vehicles, subsidiary accounts, and unusual transfers.
Most of the documents were routine.
Then Mara found an old letter addressed to my father from Daniel Mercer.
The letter referred to a proposed arrangement involving a separate account and a future transfer of ownership.
The date was six months before Arthur's $420,000 payment.
Mara read the letter twice.
"Vivian, this may be more complicated than Julian's company."
I stared at the signature at the bottom.
Daniel Mercer.
The same man connected to the failed investment, the commercial building, and the current property company.
And now his correspondence was appearing in my father's estate records.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: My Father’s Old Correspondence Revealed a Missing Investment, While Julian’s Attorney Demanded a Meeting That Could Change the Case
The Money Left My Account, and My Husband’s Gratitude Concealed a Betrayal Already Waiting Behind Closed Doors
Part 7 of 20
