Chapter 10 - Northstar
Northstar Holdings existed.
It had been formed eighteen months earlier in Delaware.
Ryan owned forty-nine percent.
The remaining fifty-one percent belonged to another company.
That company belonged to Sabrina.
I learned all of this while sitting in a conference room the morning after the baby shower.
Ryan did not come home that night.
I changed the estate security code anyway.
Margaret did not object.
She slept in the room beside mine.
At two in the morning, she came downstairs and found me eating dry cereal.
She sat beside me.
“I failed you.”
“No.”
“I raised him.”
“That doesn’t mean you chose this.”
“I taught him appearances mattered.”
I looked at her.
“That part may be true.”
She nodded.
Neither of us pretended otherwise.
By nine, Evelyn had assembled a forensic accountant.
Northstar had received more than two million dollars over eighteen months.
Some transfers came from Ryan’s personal accounts.
Some came from bonuses.
Several came from an investment partnership jointly funded during our marriage.
Money had been redirected through consulting invoices.
Sabrina claimed she believed the payments were legitimate.
Maybe she did.
Maybe she did not.
Then the accountant found something more serious.
Northstar had purchased three properties.
The Lake Shore condo.
A rental house in Scottsdale.
And a parcel in Virginia.
Virginia.
Washington.
The project Ryan claimed required his emergency trip.
I stared at the screen.
“He used a real project as a cover.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Repeatedly.”
Then she opened another document.
Northstar had applied for a business loan.
The application listed anticipated future capital.
Thirty million dollars.
The approximate amount Ryan expected from the Whitmore trust.
I felt cold.
“He planned the money before our daughter even existed.”
“Before she was conceived, apparently.”
That hurt differently.
Ryan and I had spent two years trying for a baby.
Hormone treatments.
Appointments.
Loss.
Hope.
He held me while I cried.
And somewhere during that journey, he began calculating the payout.
My phone rang.
Ryan.
I answered.
“What?”
His voice sounded exhausted.
“I need to see you.”
“No.”
“Claire, Grandpa froze my trust access.”
“Good.”
“This is not a game.”
“I know.”
“You showed private messages to eighty people.”
“You created the messages.”
“You’re destroying my life.”
I looked at the financial records.
“No, Ryan.”
I closed the folder.
“I’m just refusing to hide what you did to it.”
May you like
Then he said the one thing that made every person in the conference room look up.
“If you divorce me now, I’ll fight for full custody.”
