Chapter 18 - THE FALSE VICTORY
For three weeks, everything felt finished.
That should have warned us.
The restaurant stayed full.
Employees received their first restitution payments.
Mom paid our electric bill ahead of time for the first time in years.
She bought groceries without adding numbers on her phone calculator.
I got strawberries.
Real strawberries.
Not the bruised discounted box.
Then Angela called.
David’s attorneys had filed a new motion.
They claimed the employee settlement fund was larger than David’s remaining assets.
They wanted to shield several properties owned by DS Luxury Holdings.
Including the condominium.
The Porsche.
And two investment accounts.
Mom stared at the paperwork.
“He stole payroll to buy those things.”
“That’s our argument.”
“Then why can he keep any of it?”
“Because ownership structures can be complicated.”
Mom hated complicated.
Complicated was David’s favorite word.
Cash flow was complicated.
Payroll was complicated.
Waiting was complicated.
Being hungry was apparently complicated too.
Mom decided to attend the asset hearing.
David appeared in person this time.
He wore a plain dark suit.
No expensive watch.
No smile.
He looked smaller.
But when he saw Mom, something familiar returned to his face.
Contempt.
During a break, he passed near us.
His guards were court officers now.
Not employees.
He leaned toward Mom.
“You think you won because Kane picked you.”
Mom looked at him.
“He didn’t pick me.”
David smiled.
“You really believe you did this?”
Mom said nothing.
David continued.
“You’re a waitress.”
“You’ll always be a waitress.”
I stepped forward.
“And you don’t have your car.”
Mom immediately pulled me back.
David’s face twisted.
Vincent, standing several feet away, turned so nobody could see him smile.
The hearing resumed.
Then David’s attorney produced one final ownership claim.
The Porsche had been purchased by DS Luxury Holdings.
The company, he argued, was not wholly owned by David.
It had another shareholder.
Fifty-one percent.
Mom looked at Angela.
“Who?”
The attorney named the shareholder.
Mason Reed.
Gasps filled the courtroom.
If true, the largest assets could become tied up in Mason’s separate case.
Then Elena whispered to Angela.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“The original incorporation filing.”
She searched her laptop.
“Mason didn’t own fifty-one percent.”
“Who did?”
Elena turned the screen.
The company had been created using forged identity documents.
The listed majority owner was Daniel Carter.
Mom stopped breathing.
David’s attorney went silent.
Angela slowly stood.
“Your Honor.”
“We need a recess.”
The judge granted it.
Outside, Mom looked physically sick.
“Why would David put assets in Daniel’s name?”
Elena shook her head.
“He didn’t.”
“Mason did.”
Vincent understood first.
“It was insurance.”
Everybody looked at him.
“If David ever betrayed Mason, Mason could expose assets held under the identity of a dead man.”
Angela stared at the filing.
“But Daniel’s estate legally passed to Claire.”
Silence.
Mom looked down at the document.
Then back at Angela.
“What are you saying?”
Angela smiled for the first time all day.
“I’m saying David Sterling spent five years hiding stolen money in a company that, because of his own fraud, he accidentally made part of your husband’s estate.”
Mom stared at her.
The Porsche.
The condominium.
The investment accounts.
May you like
David had tried to hide everything.
Instead, he had hidden it under the name of the man he helped kill.
