Chapter 5 - What Nia Had FoundNia slept forty minutes that night.
Noah woke hungry just after two in the morning.
Tasha brought water while Nia settled into the corner of the guest-room bed, wincing as she shifted her weight.
“You need anything?”
“A different body.”
Tasha gave her a tired smile.
“I’ll see what Target has.”
Nia almost laughed.
Almost.
Noah’s small hand curled against her gown.
For several minutes there was peace.
Then Tasha placed Nia’s phone on the nightstand.
“Marcus called twice.”
“I know.”
“You answering?”
“Not tonight.”
Tasha sat in the chair.
“Tell me about the money.”
Nia looked down at Noah.
“You really know how to relax a person.”
“You’ll think about it anyway.”
That was true.
Nia had started helping at Walker Restoration two years earlier.
The company had been founded by Marcus’s late father, Leonard Walker, who built a modest but successful residential restoration business repairing homes after fires, storms, and water damage.
After Leonard died, Marcus took over field operations.
Denise controlled the office.
Nia handled payroll support, vendor entry, and insurance paperwork.
At first she liked working with family.
Then she noticed D&W Property Services.
The company billed Walker Restoration for cleanup labor.
Nothing strange about that.
Except Nia never met anyone from D&W.
The invoices were always round numbers.
$4,800.
$6,200.
$7,500.
They arrived irregularly.
They were always approved by Denise.
One afternoon Nia asked Marcus which job site D&W had worked.
Marcus had frowned.
“Who?”
Nia assumed he simply did not recognize the vendor name.
Then she searched project files.
The invoices did not match any active job.
“I thought it was sloppy paperwork,” she told Tasha.
“So you looked deeper.”
“Yes.”
Nia had pulled eighteen months of vendor payments.
Eighty-six thousand four hundred dollars had gone to D&W.
“What did Denise say?”
“I didn’t ask her.”
“Why not?”
“Because she controlled the banking access.”
Tasha nodded slowly.
“And because she’s Marcus’s mother.”
Nia looked away.
“Yes.”
She had wanted evidence before bringing an accusation into their marriage.
That was why she contacted Adrian Lewis, a forensic accountant recommended by one of Walker Restoration’s insurance brokers.
She met him twice.
Once in a coffee shop.
Once in his car because the coffee shop unexpectedly closed early and Nia did not want to discuss company records on the sidewalk.
Marcus had seen the second meeting.
“What were those texts?” Tasha asked.
Nia recited them from memory.
“I can’t tell Marcus yet.”
Tasha nodded.
“If he finds out before I have proof, everything blows up.”
“And the lying part?”
Nia closed her eyes.
“I wrote, ‘I hate lying to him, but I need time.’”
“Marcus probably read that like a confession.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell him once you knew he was suspicious?”
“Because I didn’t know how suspicious he was.”
Nia looked toward the dark window.
“He asked who Adrian was. I said someone helping with company stuff.”
“That sounds terrible.”
“I know.”
“You could’ve told him more.”
“I know.”
Tasha watched her sister.
Nia’s voice became quieter.
“Every time Marcus and I fought about Denise, he defended her before he even understood the issue.”
Tasha said nothing.
“When Denise changed our supplier without asking, Marcus said she had experience. When she criticized how much we spent on the wedding, he said she was worried about us. When she came into our house using her emergency key while we were away, he said she was dropping something off.”
“Nia.”
“I love him.”
Her eyes filled.
“That made me stupid in very specific ways.”
“You weren’t stupid.”
“I convinced myself I could prove everything first, then give him facts so clear he couldn’t choose her version.”
Tasha leaned forward.
“And Denise noticed.”
“Yes.”
Nia had caught Denise standing behind her desk one afternoon while an invoice spreadsheet was open.
Denise asked casually, “Why are you looking at old vendors?”
Nia lied.
“Quarterly cleanup.”
Denise smiled.
Three days later Marcus asked if Nia was happy in their marriage.
Two weeks later he started checking her location.
A month later he became distant.
Nia had blamed the pregnancy.
Now the sequence looked different.
Noah finished feeding and drifted back to sleep.
Tasha helped settle him into the bassinet.
“What else did Adrian find?”
“He couldn’t trace the company ownership without more records.”
“D&W?”
“Yes.”
“The address?”
“A mailbox.”
“Bank?”
“Account information wasn’t visible from our books.”
“So you stopped?”
Nia looked at her.
“No.”
She reached into the hospital bag.
From an inside pocket, she removed a small flash drive.
Tasha stared.
“You brought that to labor?”
“I forgot it was in the bag.”
“What’s on it?”
“Vendor ledgers. Bank reconciliations. Invoice scans. Emails.”
Tasha took it carefully.
“Does Denise know?”
“I don’t think so.”
Nia paused.
“But Adrian found something two days before I went into labor.”
“What?”
“He cross-referenced the mailing address for D&W with public property records.”
Tasha waited.
“The mailbox account was opened using a residential address.”
“Whose?”
Nia looked toward the sleeping baby.
“Denise’s.”
Tasha sat back.
“That doesn’t prove she stole the money.”
“No.”
“But it explains why she wanted you discredited.”
“Maybe.”
Nia’s phone buzzed.
Marcus.
This time the message included a photograph.
The folder from the nursery.
Denise’s handwritten notes.
Before Nia finds the rest.
Nia stared at the phrase.
Tasha read over her shoulder.
“What rest?”
Nia’s breathing changed.
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She picked up the flash drive.
“Whatever eighty-six thousand dollars was only the beginning of.”
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