Chapter 3 - THE OTHER ACCOUNT
Rebecca read the anonymous message twice.
Then she asked Rachel not to touch the phone.
Natalie stared at the screen.
“Three hundred and ten thousand dollars?”
Rachel shook her head.
“We don’t have another three hundred thousand dollars.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“Are you sure?”
Rachel almost answered immediately.
Then she stopped.
Ten years earlier, she would have known exactly how much money they had.
Five years earlier, she probably still would have known.
But Daniel’s income had increased dramatically after becoming senior vice president.
His bonus structure had become complicated.
Restricted stock.
Deferred compensation.
Performance units.
Rachel had allowed Daniel’s financial adviser to handle more of it.
She had trusted him.
She had trusted Daniel.
“I thought I was sure.”
Rebecca nodded once.
“That’s different.”
Natalie folded her arms.
“Can you trace the number?”
“Not legally from here.”
Rebecca picked up her own phone.
“But we can preserve it.”
Rachel looked at the message again.
“Who would know?”
“Daniel.”
“Claire.”
“His accountant.”
“Someone at the company.”
“Maybe a financial adviser.”
Rebecca paused.
“Or someone who helped him move it.”
Rachel’s stomach tightened.
Daniel called again.
Rebecca shook her head.
“Not now.”
Rachel did not answer.
Meanwhile, Daniel had stopped pretending he was calm.
At 8:26 a.m., he was sitting inside the office of his attorney, Martin Keller.
Martin was fifty-eight.
Expensive.
Controlled.
And visibly irritated.
Daniel had used Martin for corporate matters twice.
He had never expected to sit across from him discussing his marriage.
Martin turned one page of the divorce complaint.
Then another.
Finally, he removed his glasses.
“You moved marital funds.”
Daniel leaned back.
“I restructured investments.”
“You moved marital funds.”
“It was for asset protection.”
“From whom?”
Daniel did not answer.
Martin stared at him.
“That question was not rhetorical.”
“Market volatility.”
“Then why create an LLC?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
Martin’s jaw tightened.
“And why does Rachel’s attorney have an authorization bearing her signature?”
Daniel looked back at him.
“She signed plenty of paperwork.”
“Did she sign this?”
“I don’t remember.”
Martin sat very still.
“That means no.”
“It means I don’t remember.”
“Daniel.”
Martin lowered his voice.
“If you forged your wife’s signature, I need to know before I walk into a courtroom and accidentally lie for you.”
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“Who prepared the document?”
“My financial adviser.”
“Name.”
Daniel hesitated.
Martin noticed.
“Name.”
“Evan Cole.”
Martin wrote it down.
“Who gave Evan the authorization?”
“I may have emailed it.”
“Where did the signature come from?”
Daniel’s eyes hardened.
“I don’t appreciate the interrogation.”
“You are paying me to interrogate you before Rebecca Shaw does.”
Martin pushed the divorce complaint toward him.
“She is very good.”
“I know.”
“No.”
“You know her reputation.”
“I know what she does.”
“She finds the fact you hoped was irrelevant.”
“Then she places it in front of a judge and lets you explain it.”
Daniel remained silent.
Martin continued.
“Tell me about Claire Halstead.”
Daniel sighed.
“She works at Whitmore Analytics.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
“How long have you been sleeping together?”
“Five months.”
Martin’s pen stopped.
“And you formed the LLC seven months ago.”
Daniel’s gaze sharpened.
“How do you know that?”
“Because Rachel’s lawyer attached the registration.”
Daniel looked down.
For the first time, Martin saw genuine alarm.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Daniel.”
“I said nothing.”
Martin leaned back.
“Your affair may be morally ugly.”
“In Massachusetts, it is unlikely to decide the property division by itself.”
“But hidden assets, forged signatures, and financial deception can matter a great deal.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“I need you to get the freeze lifted.”
“Why?”
“Because I have obligations.”
“What obligations?”
“Normal expenses.”
“Use your salary.”
“That account is restricted too.”
“Temporarily.”
“I need liquidity.”
Martin studied him.
“How much?”
Daniel did not answer.
“How much, Daniel?”
“About eighty thousand.”
Martin blinked.
“For what?”
“A commitment.”
“To whom?”
Daniel’s silence gave the answer before his mouth did.
Martin closed the file.
“You promised Claire money.”
“No.”
“A property?”
Daniel looked away.
“Jesus Christ.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“I assure you, I currently think very little that would flatter you.”
Daniel stood.
“I’m not paying you to judge me.”
“No.”
“You’re paying me to keep you from making your situation worse.”
“Sit down.”
Daniel did not.
Martin pointed at the chair.
“Sit down.”
Something in his tone worked.
Daniel sat.
Martin continued.
“From this moment forward, you transfer nothing.”
“You delete nothing.”
“You ask no employee to alter records.”
“You do not contact Rachel except about genuinely necessary matters.”
“You do not threaten her.”
“I haven’t threatened her.”
“You do not pressure her.”
Daniel looked offended.
“She is my wife.”
“She is the opposing party in a divorce proceeding.”
“You need to understand that quickly.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
Claire.
He ignored it.
Martin looked at the screen.
“Does she know about the LLC?”
“No.”
“Does she know about the money?”
“Some.”
“How much?”
Daniel did not answer.
Martin shut his eyes briefly.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“You are making me discover your case one disaster at a time.”
Daniel finally said it.
“I told Claire I would buy a condo.”
“With what money?”
“My money.”
Martin tapped the complaint.
“That phrase is going to cause you trouble.”
Across town, Rachel was learning the same lesson from the other side.
Rebecca had obtained tax records from the last three years.
Rachel sat beside her in a conference room.
A forensic accountant named Thomas Baines had joined them.
Thomas was quiet and thin, with steel-framed glasses and a habit of tapping a pencil against numbers that bothered him.
He had been tapping for six minutes.
Finally Rachel asked.
“What?”
Thomas pointed to a line on Daniel’s 2025 compensation statement.
“Deferred executive bonus.”
Rachel looked.
“$186,000.”
“Yes.”
“I know about that.”
“Where is it?”
Rachel blinked.
“What do you mean?”
“Where did it land?”
“In our investment account, I assume.”
Thomas shook his head.
“It did not.”
Rachel looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca said nothing.
Thomas turned another page.
“Then there is a stock-unit redemption.”
“After tax, approximately $97,000.”
“That also did not enter your joint accounts.”
Rachel felt her pulse in her neck.
Thomas tapped another line.
“And a consulting payment from Barton Ridge Partners.”
“$34,500.”
Rachel frowned.
“Daniel doesn’t consult for Barton Ridge.”
“According to this document, he did.”
Thomas added the figures.
The number was not exactly $310,000.
But it was close enough to make Rachel’s hands go cold.
Rebecca looked at her.
“The anonymous message may have been rounding.”
Rachel whispered.
“Where did it go?”
Thomas turned his laptop.
“I found a transfer trail.”
Money moved from Daniel’s employer.
Then to an individual account.
Then to something labeled Harbor Private Client Services.
Then the trail disappeared.
“What is Harbor?”
Rachel asked.
“A wealth-management platform.”
“Can we subpoena it?”
Rebecca nodded.
“We can request records through discovery.”
“How long?”
“Daniel’s attorney will resist.”
“How long?”
“Weeks.”
Rachel stood and walked toward the window.
Boston traffic moved below.
People were going to work.
Buying coffee.
Complaining about parking.
The normality of the city felt offensive.
She had thought her marriage had broken because Daniel fell in love with someone else.
Now it appeared he had been quietly constructing an exit strategy before Claire ever became the excuse.
Rachel turned back.
“What if Claire wasn’t the reason?”
Natalie frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“What if he was going to leave anyway?”
Rebecca watched her.
Rachel continued.
“The LLC was created before the affair.”
“The money started moving before the affair.”
“Maybe Claire didn’t destroy my marriage.”
“Maybe she just walked into something Daniel had already decided.”
Thomas stopped tapping his pencil.
Rebecca said gently.
“That is possible.”
Rachel’s phone buzzed.
Another unknown message.
Same number.
This time there was an attachment.
A photograph.
It showed Daniel sitting inside a restaurant.
The timestamp was seven months earlier.
Across from him sat a man Rachel recognized immediately.
Evan Cole.
Daniel’s financial adviser.
A folder lay open between them.
Beside Daniel’s hand was a sheet of paper.
The top line could be read even in the photograph.
POST-MARITAL ASSET POSITIONING.
Rachel’s breath caught.
Below the photograph, the anonymous sender had written:
Claire came later.
Then a second message arrived.
He was planning to leave you long before he met her.
Rachel stared at the screen.
A third message followed.
But that still isn’t the worst part.
And then:
May you like
Ask Daniel why he took out a life insurance policy on you in February.
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