Chapter 4 - The Company I Never Knew Existed
“Carter Consulting LLC.”
I said the name quietly.
Daniel’s entire body went still.
Chloe looked between us.
“What is that?”
I kept my eyes on my husband.
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
Daniel forced a laugh.
“It’s an old business account.”
His father frowned.
“What business?”
Daniel glanced at him.
“Consulting.”
“You don’t do consulting.”
“I did some freelance work.”
My phone vibrated again.
Claire had sent a screenshot.
The company had been created eighteen months earlier.
Daniel was the sole registered manager.
Its mailing address was not our home.
It was a private mailbox across town.
I showed the screen to Chloe.
She stared.
Then she looked at Daniel.
“That’s where you told me your investment income came from.”
Daniel snapped, “Give me a minute.”
Chloe’s mouth fell open.
“No.”
He tried to lower his voice.
“I can explain.”
She laughed once.
It was bitter.
“That seems to be your favorite sentence tonight.”
I opened the attachment Claire had sent.
Deposits.
Transfers.
Credit-card payments.
One caught my attention immediately.
A $9,800 payment to a luxury apartment complex.
Another to a furniture store.
Another to a jewelry company.
Then I saw money entering the company.
Not from Daniel’s salary.
From our home-equity line.
My stomach dropped.
“We don’t have a home-equity line.”
Daniel said nothing.
His father stepped closer.
“What did you do?”
I kept scrolling.
There it was.
A loan secured against the house Daniel and I owned together.
My signature appeared on the paperwork.
Only I had never signed it.
My fingers went cold.
I enlarged the document.
Jennifer Carter.
My name.
My supposed signature.
The date was three weeks before Lily was born.
I remembered that week perfectly.
My blood pressure had spiked.
I had spent two days in the hospital under observation.
Daniel had sat beside my bed telling me not to worry about money.
While apparently forging my name on debt secured against our home.
I looked up.
“Did you sign my name?”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“I had authorization.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“We’re married.”
“That is not authorization.”
Chloe backed away from him.
Patricia whispered, “Daniel, please tell me you didn’t forge her signature.”
He looked at everyone except me.
That was answer enough.
I took a photograph of the document.
Then I forwarded everything to Claire.
Daniel finally lost control.
He grabbed my wrist.
“Stop sending things.”
My father stepped between us so quickly that Daniel released me.
“Do not touch my daughter.”
The lobby became silent again.
Daniel lifted both hands.
“Fine.”
He looked at me with hatred now.
Real hatred.
“You want a divorce?”
“Yes.”
“You want to embarrass me?”
“No.”
“You want to take everything?”
“I want what belongs to Lily and me.”
His expression changed.
For the first time, there was calculation behind his anger.
Then he said something that made Chloe stare at him.
“You should be careful what you ask for.”
I frowned.
Daniel leaned closer.
“Because if we start discussing paternity, Jennifer, this gets complicated.”
The words hung between us.
My mother whispered, “What does that mean?”
Daniel smiled.
May you like
And that was when I realized he had prepared one more lie.
This one was aimed directly at Lily.
