Chapter 22 - Denise Tells the Whole Story
Denise testified under cooperation agreement.
She started taking money from Harvest Ridge two years after contract began.
First:
$5,000 speaking fee.
Then consulting.
Then regular payments.
She convinced herself expertise deserved compensation.
Thomas discovered arrangement?
She claimed yes.
Did he demand stop?
No.
He asked whether payments could “create optics problem.”
Then connected her with accountant to route through consulting company.
That implicated him.
Thomas’s defense disputed.
Accountant records corroborated.
Thomas had not merely pressured safety shortcuts.
He helped conceal vendor-linked payments.
His own Morrow account showed similar pattern.
Family betrayal became financial.
Rachel had married man who used her authority and district relationships as camouflage.
She had to accept without rewriting whole marriage as fake.
Some years were real.
Some choices were wrong.
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