I had believed them.
Because normal people believe grieving families.
“Why did you use her identity for the company?”
Claire wiped her face.
“Because she was the only person I trusted.”
“Trusted with what?”
Silence.
Then Rebecca answered.
“With almost two hundred thousand dollars.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“We kept tracing.”
She handed me another sheet.
“The seventy-two thousand from your savings, the sixty-five thousand from the fraudulent commercial loan, and another fifty-eight thousand Claire transferred from a brokerage account eighteen months ago.”
I had forgotten the brokerage account.
My uncle had helped me open it after my last deployment.
I rarely touched it.
“Where is the money?”
“Northstar Wellness Consulting.”
“And then?”
Rebecca looked toward Claire.
“Most of it moved offshore.”
Claire stood abruptly.
“That isn’t what happened.”
Rebecca’s eyebrows lifted.
“Then this would be a wonderful time to explain.”
Claire looked at me.
For the first time
