Chapter 14 - The Accounting
The formal trust accounting was sixty-three pages long.
Jada read every one.
The opening balance on January first had been $94,218.11.
The final liquid balance after ordinary interest and bank fees was $2,146.38.
Then came the Treasury securities.
$24,912.64.
Total trust assets diverted or improperly transferred:
$116,984.37.
Jada stared at the number.
It was larger than her mother earned in a year.
Larger than anything Jada had ever imagined owning.
Leah had organized the transfers by color.
Red for undisputed misuse.
Yellow for funds still being traced.
Blue for potentially recoverable assets.
“Where are we now?” Jada asked.
Leah pointed.
“Seven thousand in Darrell’s brokerage account remains frozen.”
“Okay.”
“The SUV has equity.”
“How much?”
“Approximately fourteen thousand after the auto loan.”
“Can we take it?”
“We can seek turnover or settlement.”
“What else?”
“King Development Holdings owns the warehouse.”
Renee leaned forward.
“I thought there was a mortgage.”
“There is. But preliminary appraisal suggests roughly forty-five thousand dollars in equity.”
Jada almost laughed.
“So he had property equity while telling Mom his company would die without my money.”
“Yes.”
“What about Home Solutions?”
“It has accounts receivable.”
“How much?”
“One major customer owes fifty-four thousand.”
Jada’s eyes widened.
“Why hasn’t that been paid?”
“Project dispute.”
“Will it be?”
“Possibly.”
Jada rubbed her forehead.
Money had become unreal.
Numbers moving between pages.
Forty thousand here.
Seventeen there.
Fifty-four maybe coming.
Fourteen trapped in a car.
Forty-five buried in a warehouse.
Her future had not vanished.
It had been scattered.
“Can we get all of it back?”
Leah did not lie.
“Probably not.”
Jada appreciated that too.
“How much?”
“Too early.”
“What’s the worst case?”
Leah paused.
“If the businesses fail and secured creditors consume most business assets, recovery could be limited.”
Jada looked at Tamika’s side of the accounting.
“What does Mom owe?”
“As trustee, she may be personally liable for losses caused by breach.”
Renee’s face hardened.
“So she has to replace it.”
“That is one potential remedy.”
Jada thought of Tamika’s retirement account.
The house.
Her job.
The life she would have after this.
“Can I choose not to take everything from her?”
“Yes.”
Renee turned.
“Jada.”
“What?”
“Don’t protect her because she’s crying.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re already thinking about it.”
“I’m thinking about consequences.”
“So was your grandfather.”
Jada looked at Renee.
“And he also loved her.”
Renee went quiet.
Leah spoke.
“You do not need to decide today.”
Outside the office, Renee stopped Jada.
“Be careful.”
“I am.”
“No. You’re starting to feel sorry for her.”
“Of course I feel sorry for her.”
“She made this mess.”
“Both can be true.”
Renee looked surprised.
Jada continued.
“I can be furious and still not want my mother homeless.”
Renee crossed her arms.
“She owns the house.”
“With a mortgage.”
“Yes.”
“And if I take everything she has?”
“You would be recovering what she took.”
Jada’s voice hardened.
“I’m not Darrell.”
Renee stared.
“That’s not fair.”
“No. But I’m not going to learn from this that justice means taking until somebody else is empty.”
Renee looked away.
Jada immediately regretted the sharpness.
“Aunt Renee.”
“What?”
“I’m not letting her off.”
“I know.”
“You’re angry because she forged your name too.”
Renee laughed bitterly.
“Nice of somebody to remember.”
Jada touched her arm.
“I remember.”
Renee’s eyes filled.
“She was my little sister.”
Jada had been so consumed by her own betrayal that she had not fully considered Renee’s.
Tamika had used her sister’s identity because she assumed Renee’s boundaries were an inconvenience.
“What do you want from her?” Jada asked.
Renee looked toward the parking lot.
“I want her to understand that being family doesn’t make my no less valid.”
Jada thought about that.
It was the same lesson wearing different clothes.
That evening, Tamika sent Leah another batch of emails.
One contained an attachment none of them had seen before.
A valuation report for King Home Solutions.
Prepared six weeks before Tamika transferred the first forty thousand.
Company net value:
negative $73,000.
Jada read the number three times.
Then she called Leah.
“Does this mean what I think?”
“If the valuation is legitimate, Darrell knew his company’s liabilities exceeded its assets before he took the first trust money.”
“And he sold Mom eighteen percent of it for ninety-two thousand?”
“Yes.”
“What was eighteen percent actually worth?”
Leah paused.
“Possibly nothing.”
Jada felt cold.
The equity agreement had not been a bad investment.
It may never have been an investment at all.
It had been a way to turn restricted trust money into cash for a failing company.
“Did Mom see this valuation?”
“We don’t know.”
Jada searched the email chain.
The report had been sent to Darrell.
Not Tamika.
But farther down was a message from Tamika.
Can you send me something showing what the company is worth before I sign?
Darrell answered:
The bank valuation isn’t useful. It doesn’t account for Easton. Trust me.
Jada stared at the final two words.
Trust me.
She had never hated a phrase more.
Then she saw another message attached lower in the chain.
From Darrell to his accountant.
Need the Williams funds classified as equity, not loan. If it’s debt, First Federal won’t close.
Jada called Renee into the room.
“This wasn’t just about saving the company.”
Renee read the email.
Her face tightened.
“He needed your money to make the bank think his balance sheet was stronger.”
Jada nodded.
“And if he called it a loan, the bank would count it as more debt.”
“Exactly.”
Jada looked at the sixty-three-page accounting.
Darrell had not merely taken money.
He had used the existence of Jada’s trust to make himself look financially healthier to another lender.
Her grandfather’s discipline had become Darrell’s credibility.
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And Jada suddenly wanted one thing more than repayment.
She wanted him to have to explain that out loud.
