Chapter 9 - Leonard’s WarningMarcus brought the estate box to Tasha’s apartment that afternoon.
Nia nearly told him to leave.
Then she saw the yellow legal pad.
“What is that?”
“My father’s.”
Tasha cleared the dining table.
Noah slept nearby.
Marcus placed the documents down carefully.
“I found Mom’s cropped screenshots.”
Nia stopped moving.
Marcus unlocked the tablet and showed her.
Full conversations.
Full context.
Her own words returned to her.
Not guilty.
Not romantic.
Just frightened.
Marcus’s voice was hoarse.
“She created the cropped versions.”
Tasha leaned closer.
“Metadata?”
“Generated on the tablet.”
“Can you preserve that?”
“I made a full backup and called our company attorney.”
Nia looked at him.
“You called an attorney before confronting Denise?”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“I’m trying to do things differently.”
The sentence landed quietly.
Nia looked away.
Marcus continued.
“She admitted she moved company money.”
“Admitted stealing?”
“No. She called it money the company owed her.”
Tasha pulled the estate papers closer.
“And this?”
“She told me Dad left hidden debts.”
For the next hour, they read.
Leonard Walker’s estate had been more complicated than Marcus remembered.
The company ownership documents showed Marcus held seventy percent of Walker Restoration after his father’s death.
Denise held thirty percent.
But the operating agreement contained a restriction Nia had never seen.
Transactions to relatives, related entities, or member-controlled vendors above ten thousand dollars annually required written approval from both members.
Marcus looked sick.
“D&W violated this.”
“Yes,” Tasha said.
“Repeatedly.”
Nia flipped through bank correspondence.
“Why would Denise think she could hide that forever?”
“Because nobody reviewed her.”
Marcus sounded ashamed.
“I trusted her.”
Nia looked at him.
He met her eyes.
Neither spoke.
Trust.
The word occupied the room differently now.
Tasha found the yellow legal pad.
“Here.”
Leonard’s note.
Denise cannot have sole financial control again.
Beneath it were smaller lines.
Credit card — 32K.
House advance — 41K.
R. invoices?
Marcus leaned closer.
“R.”
“Raymond?” Nia asked.
Marcus nodded slowly.
Tasha found a letter from an accounting firm dated five years earlier.
It referenced “material weaknesses in internal controls,” unauthorized credit-card charges, and reimbursements to a related party.
Nia read aloud.
“Management agreed all future related-party transactions will require dual approval.”
Marcus sat back.
“He knew.”
“Your father knew something,” Tasha corrected.
Another document showed Leonard had refinanced equipment to cover a cash-flow shortfall.
The amount?
Seventy-three thousand dollars.
Marcus stared at it.
“Mom said he left debt.”
“He did,” Nia said.
“But maybe because money had already disappeared.”
Marcus pressed his fingertips to his forehead.
“I spent years thinking she saved the company after he died.”
“She may have helped,” Nia said.
He looked at her.
Despite everything, her voice was careful.
She was not trying to turn him against Denise.
That hurt in a new way.
Nia continued.
“Two things can be true. She may have worked hard. She may also have taken money.”
Marcus nodded.
Tasha turned another page.
A handwritten note from Leonard.
If anything happens to me, Marcus needs an outside CPA. Denise gets defensive when questioned. Do not let family loyalty replace controls.
Marcus stood abruptly and walked toward the window.
His back remained to them.
Nia watched his shoulders.
She knew what it felt like when the person you trusted became evidence.
She hated that she understood him.
Marcus spoke quietly.
“I did exactly what he warned me not to do.”
Tasha answered.
“You trusted your mother.”
“I let her control every number.”
“Your mistake was not trusting her.”
Nia looked down at Noah.
“Your mistake was refusing to look when things stopped making sense.”
Marcus turned.
The words were about the company.
They were also about their marriage.
He knew it.
“I’m sorry.”
Nia closed the estate folder.
“We can’t keep having the same apology.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t.”
Marcus nodded.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Denise.
He read it.
His face tightened.
“What?” Nia asked.
Marcus showed them.
I changed my mind. If Nia wants to accuse me, I want everything handled formally. Company, marriage, all of it. Tell her attorney to contact mine.
Tasha frowned.
“Marriage?”
Nia read the message again.
“She assumes we’re getting divorced.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Are we?”
Nia’s eyes moved toward him.
“I don’t know.”
He absorbed that without argument.
Then another message appeared.
This one contained an attachment.
A bank statement.
Denise wrote:
Before everyone decides I stole from my own family, ask Nia why forty-two thousand dollars was transferred from Walker Restoration into an account with HER name on it.
Marcus stared.
Tasha’s head snapped toward Nia.
Nia went completely still.
“What account?” Marcus asked.
Nia did not answer.
“Nia?”
Her face had lost color.
“That account isn’t mine.”
Marcus turned the screen toward her.
The statement showed the account holder clearly.
NIA WALKER.
Forty-two thousand dollars.
Transferred over seven months.
Tasha whispered, “What the hell?”
Nia looked at Marcus.
“I’ve never seen that account in my life.”
And for one terrible second, Marcus realized the DNA test had taught him nothing useful about certainty.
Because evidence could be real.
Names could be real.
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