Chapter 2 - The Account Under Her NameNia did not scream again.
That frightened Marcus more than anything she could have thrown.
She pulled out one of the stools beneath the kitchen island and sat because the incision beneath her sweater had begun to burn.
Marcus moved toward her automatically.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Kiara remained across the room, arms wrapped around herself.
Nia looked at her.
“What account?”
Kiara wiped her cheeks.
“An LLC.”
“What LLC?”
“Morrow Ridge Holdings.”
The name meant nothing to Nia.
That made it worse.
“When?”
“Last year.”
Marcus exhaled heavily.
“This isn’t the way to explain it.”
Nia turned toward him.
“You’ve had nine years to decide how you wanted to explain things.”
“Nia—”
“Sit down.”
He stared at her.
She repeated it.
“Sit.”
Marcus lowered himself onto the stool opposite her.
Kiara stayed standing.
Nia pressed her palm against the marble.
“How much money?”
Neither answered.
“How much?”
Kiara whispered, “I don’t know the final number.”
Marcus said, “It wasn’t stolen.”
Nia’s eyes narrowed.
Interesting choice of word.
“I didn’t say stolen.”
Marcus looked away.
Nia felt something inside her harden.
Her design company had grown steadily for six years. Nia Carter Design Studio had begun in a rented two-room office with one assistant and three staging contracts. Now it handled luxury renovations, hospitality projects, and corporate interiors across metro Atlanta.
Marcus had joined full-time four years earlier.
Operations.
Invoices.
Vendor relationships.
Cash management.
Nia had trusted him with everything except creative direction.
During his kidney failure, he had continued working from home whenever he could.
Kiara, who had bookkeeping experience, had begun helping.
Nia had thought the arrangement was proof that family could carry one another.
“How much?” she asked again.
Marcus rubbed both hands over his face.
“Two hundred fourteen.”
Nia waited.
“Thousand?”
“Yes.”
The word seemed too small for the number.
Nia looked at Kiara.
“You let two hundred fourteen thousand dollars move through an account in your name?”
Kiara’s voice broke.
“It didn’t happen at once.”
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
Marcus answered.
“Most of it is still there.”
“Most?”
“We used some for an investment.”
Nia stared.
“We?”
Marcus hesitated.
Nia pointed between him and Kiara.
“You and my sister were sleeping together, hiding it until after I donated an organ, and investing my company’s money?”
“It was not your personal money.”
Her face changed.
Marcus immediately realized his mistake.
Nia leaned forward.
“Say that again.”
“I mean the company had operating reserves.”
“My company.”
“I helped build it.”
“You were paid.”
“I was your husband.”
“Apparently that meant something different to you.”
Kiara whispered, “Marcus.”
He ignored her.
“Nia, the business was under pressure. Two major clients were late. Medical bills were stacking up.”
“Insurance covered most of your transplant workup.”
“Not everything.”
“So you stole two hundred fourteen thousand dollars?”
“I moved money temporarily.”
“Without telling me?”
“I was trying to protect us.”
“By putting it in my sister’s name?”
Marcus said nothing.
That silence answered more than his explanations.
Nia stood.
Pain flashed through her abdomen.
She gripped the counter until it passed.
Marcus began to rise.
She gave him one look.
He remained seated.
“Show me.”
“Nia—”
“The account.”
Kiara slowly reached into her purse.
Her phone shook in her hand.
Marcus stood abruptly.
“You don’t have to do that.”
Kiara turned on him.
“Yes, I do.”
“You think dumping everything on her tonight helps?”
“No. I think we’re done deciding what she gets to know.”
Nia watched them.
The phrasing struck her.
We.
They had been a unit inside her marriage.
A hidden committee.
A second household built inside the first.
Kiara unlocked her phone and opened a banking app.
The balance read $146,382.17.
Nia stared at it.
“What happened to the rest?”
Kiara looked at Marcus.
Marcus looked away.
Nia said, “There’s about sixty-eight thousand missing.”
“It went into a real estate deal,” Marcus said.
“What deal?”
“A small development.”
“Whose?”
“A group I knew.”
“Did I authorize it?”
“No.”
“Did the company own any part of it?”
“No.”
“Then why was my company funding it?”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“I thought I could turn it quickly and replace the cash.”
“And did you?”
“No.”
Nia looked at Kiara.
“What did you know?”
“Not everything.”
“That answer better get specific.”
Kiara lowered her eyes.
“I opened the LLC.”
“You knew the money was coming from my company?”
“Yes.”
“You knew I didn’t know?”
Kiara hesitated.
“Yes.”
The answer sliced differently than the pregnancy.
Nia’s sister had not simply fallen into an affair.
She had participated in a structure.
Bank accounts.
Transfers.
Paper trails.
Planning.
Nia said, “Why?”
Kiara looked ashamed.
“Marcus said the business was going to collapse if creditors froze accounts. He said he needed somewhere temporary to hold reserves.”
Marcus interrupted.
“That was true.”
“Was it?” Nia asked.
“At the time, yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were already carrying everything.”
Nia laughed softly.
“I literally carried your kidney.”
Marcus looked wounded.
She almost hated him for looking wounded.
Kiara spoke quickly.
“There’s more.”
Marcus turned.
“Enough.”
“No.”
“Kiara.”
“No, Marcus.”
For the first time that night, Kiara’s fear became anger.
She looked at Nia.
“He didn’t move the money because creditors were coming.”
Marcus stared at her.
Kiara continued.
“He moved it because he thought once you found out about us, you’d lock him out of the company.”
Nia felt the room go silent again.
“And when exactly,” she asked, “did he think I was going to find out?”
Kiara’s eyes filled.
“After the transplant.”
Nia looked at Marcus.
“How long before my surgery did you plan this?”
Marcus did not answer.
Kiara did.
“Four months.”
Nia closed her eyes.
Four months.
Her surgery had not interrupted their plan.
Her surgery had been part of its schedule.
When she opened her eyes, Marcus was watching her with panic.
“Nia, I never wanted you hurt.”
She looked at him for a long time.
Then she said, “Get out of my house.”
Marcus stood.
“Our house.”
“Not tonight.”
“Nia—”
“Not tonight.”
He glanced toward the medication on the island.
Nia followed his gaze.
Marcus hesitated.
Something cruel almost rose in her.
She could have told him to leave the pills.
She could have hated the organ inside him.
Instead she pushed the medication toward him with two fingers.
“Take them.”
Marcus looked at her.
“You still need the kidney to live,” she said. “But you don’t get to use that fact to stay married to me.”
He picked up the bottles.
Kiara moved toward the door too.
Nia stopped her.
“Not you.”
Kiara froze.
Marcus looked back.
Nia’s voice remained steady.
“My sister stays.”
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
Then she looked directly at Kiara.
“Because I want every password, every message, every transfer, and every lie before the sun comes up.”
Related Stories
