Chapter 15 - Under Oath
The deposition took place on a gray Thursday morning.
Jada was not required to attend.
She insisted.
Darrell sat at the opposite end of the conference table beside his attorney.
No gold watch.
Jada noticed immediately.
Leah began with simple questions.
Name.
Age.
Companies owned.
Bank accounts.
Darrell answered calmly.
Then came King Home Solutions.
“When did the company begin experiencing liquidity problems?”
“Every contracting business has seasonal fluctuations.”
“That was not my question.”
Darrell’s attorney objected.
The court reporter continued typing.
Jada watched Darrell adjust his cuff.
Leah tried again.
“When did King Home Solutions first become unable to meet obligations as they came due?”
“December.”
“December of what year?”
“Last year.”
“Before you received funds originating from the Isaiah Williams Education Trust?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know those funds belonged to an education trust?”
Darrell looked toward his attorney.
“Yes.”
“Did you review the trust?”
“Parts.”
“Did you know extraordinary distributions required Renee Williams’s approval?”
“I understood Tamika was primary trustee.”
“That was not my question.”
Another objection.
“Yes,” Darrell finally said.
Jada’s hands curled under the table.
Leah placed the forged consent in front of him.
“Did you know this signature was not Renee Williams’s?”
Darrell stared at the paper.
“No.”
Jada looked at Tamika.
Tamika sat with her attorney against the wall.
Her expression hardened.
Leah produced the email.
Need Renee’s approval page completed before the bank meeting. Don’t involve her unless necessary.
“Did you write this?”
“Yes.”
“What did you mean by ‘completed’?”
“I meant signed.”
“By Renee?”
“I assumed.”
Leah read the next sentence.
She’ll make it emotional.
“Why would Renee be emotional if she had agreed?”
Darrell’s attorney objected.
Leah moved on.
“Did you know Tamika signed Renee’s name?”
“No.”
Tamika whispered, “Liar.”
Her attorney touched her arm.
Leah heard it.
So did Darrell.
He did not look at Tamika.
The questions continued.
Easton contract.
Business valuation.
Harbor.
SUV.
Treasury securities.
Darrell denied redeeming them.
Then Leah displayed bank login records.
The Treasury account had been accessed from an IP address associated with King Home Solutions.
Darrell’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Jada saw it.
“Was that your office?”
“Yes.”
“Did employees have access to Tamika’s trust credentials?”
“No.”
“So either Tamika accessed the Treasury account from your office or you did.”
Objection.
Darrell’s jaw tightened.
“I don’t remember.”
Leah placed the redemption authorization before him.
“Is this Tamika’s authentic electronic signature?”
“I believed it was.”
“Who submitted it?”
“I don’t know.”
“The proceeds went to a joint account belonging to you and Tamika.”
“Yes.”
“Who moved twenty thousand dollars from that account to King Harbor the following day?”
“I would need to review records.”
Leah slid the record forward.
“Review it.”
Darrell did.
The court reporter typed.
“You initiated it, correct?”
“Yes.”
Jada’s heart pounded.
Leah’s voice stayed calm.
“Why?”
“Business expenses.”
“From funds you claim you did not know came from redeemed Treasury securities.”
“I did not track every deposit.”
“So nearly twenty-five thousand dollars appeared in your joint account and you transferred twenty thousand the next day without asking where it came from?”
Darrell leaned back.
“That account had multiple transactions.”
Leah nodded.
“Understood.”
She waited.
Silence stretched.
Then she asked the question Jada had been waiting for.
“Mr. King, what was King Home Solutions worth when you sold the Isaiah Williams Education Trust an eighteen-percent interest for ninety-two thousand dollars?”
Darrell stared at her.
“The valuation was dependent on future contracts.”
“What was its book value?”
“I’m not an accountant.”
Leah placed the report down.
“Negative seventy-three thousand dollars?”
Darrell’s attorney objected.
Darrell said nothing.
Leah continued.
“Did you disclose this valuation to Tamika Williams before she invested trust assets?”
“She knew the company was struggling.”
“Did you give her this report?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did you tell First Federal the ninety-two thousand was equity?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That is what it was.”
“Then why did you sign a promissory note promising to repay forty thousand dollars to the trust?”
Darrell looked at his attorney.
The room became very still.
Leah placed both documents side by side.
“To the bank, the money was equity.”
Darrell said nothing.
“To the family, forty thousand was debt.”
Still nothing.
“Which statement was true?”
His attorney objected again.
Leah leaned back.
“You may answer.”
Darrell stared at Jada.
For the first time that morning, he looked directly at her.
Something in his expression was not guilt.
It was resentment.
As though her refusal to remain silent had caused his problems.
“The whole thing was supposed to work,” he said.
Leah paused.
“That was not my question.”
Darrell’s voice hardened.
“I was trying to keep the company alive.”
“With trust money?”
“Yes.”
“By telling different parties different things?”
“I did what I had to do.”
Jada felt her stomach tighten.
There it was.
The same language.
Necessary sacrifice.
Do what you have to do.
Save the family.
Save the business.
Somebody else pays.
Leah asked, “Did Jada Williams ever consent?”
Darrell’s jaw clenched.
“She was a child.”
Jada’s breath caught.
Leah did not react.
“She was the beneficiary.”
“Tamika was trustee.”
“That does not answer my question.”
“No.”
Darrell looked at Jada again.
“She didn’t consent.”
The words were quiet.
But they mattered.
For months, everyone had discussed the money as though Jada had been an object sitting beside it.
A beneficiary.
A student.
A daughter.
A problem.
Now the man who spent it had finally said the fact aloud.
She did not consent.
Leah closed the file.
“One last question.”
Darrell looked exhausted.
“If the Easton contract had been awarded and the company recovered, did you intend to tell Jada her trust money had been used?”
Darrell hesitated.
“No.”
Jada looked at her mother.
Tamika began crying silently.
Darrell continued.
“There wouldn’t have been any reason.”
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Jada understood then that secrecy had never been an accident of the plan.
Secrecy was the plan.
