Chapter 4: The Man Who Knew Where All the Money Was
Daniel arrived at seven the next morning with a woman I hadn't met before.
"Grace Adeyemi," he said.
"She handles asset protection and matrimonial forensics.
I called her last night after we spoke."
Grace was in her forties, compact, unhurried.
She set a bag on my desk and looked around the study the way a doctor looks at a patient — not unkindly, but without sentiment.
"Where is your wife now?" she asked.
"Upstairs.
She hasn't come down."
"Good.
Before we go any further, I need to ask you something directly." She looked at me.
"In the last eighteen months, have you signed any documents that Serena brought to you?
Anything you didn't read fully?
Anything she described as routine or administrative?"
I thought about it.
"There were some investment restructuring forms.
Last spring.
She said they were for the portfolio rebalancing."
Grace and Daniel exchanged a look.
"Do you have copies?" she asked.
"Serena handled the filing."
Grace opened her bag and placed a single sheet on the desk.
"Is this your signature?"
I looked at it.
It was my signature.
The document beneath it was a partial transfer of beneficial ownership in my primary holding company — thirty-one percent — to a trust I had never heard of.
The trust's registered agent was Victor Lau.
My chair didn't move.
I didn't stand up.
I just looked at the page until the words stopped rearranging themselves.
"When was this filed?" I asked.
"Fourteen months ago," Grace said.
"It was buried inside a package of seven documents.
The other six were legitimate.
This one was not."
"She had me sign away a third of my company."
"Beneficially, yes.
The legal title is still yours.
But if Victor exercised the trust, he would control the distributions.
And in a divorce proceeding, his claim on those assets would be significant."
Daniel leaned forward.
"Marcus.
This isn't just a marriage problem."
I stood up and walked to the window.
The garden was empty.
The caterers' tables from last night were still out there, white cloths gone gray in the morning light.
"How long have they been planning this?" I asked.
"The earliest document we've found so far is twenty-two months old," Grace said.
"A small thing.
A change to a beneficiary form.
Easy to miss."
Twenty-two months.
Mei had been five years old.
"I need to speak to Serena," I said.
"Not yet," Daniel said immediately.
"Not until we have the full picture."
"She's in my house."
"I know.
But if you confront her now, she'll call Victor, and Victor will move.
We need two more days."
I turned around.
"Two days."
"Forty-eight hours.
Let Grace work.
Then you'll know everything, and you'll be able to act on all of it at once instead of giving them time to cover their tracks."
I looked at the document on my desk.
My own signature, used against me.
Fourteen months of not knowing.
"Fine," I said.
"Forty-eight hours."
Grace was already pulling more files from her bag.
"One more thing.
The guardianship petition in Serena's drawer — it was filed using forged letterhead from your company's law firm.
That's a separate criminal matter, independent of the civil case."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning Victor has exposure that has nothing to do with the divorce.
Depending on what else we find, this could go well beyond family court."
Upstairs, I heard Serena's door open.
Her footsteps moved toward the bathroom.
The sound of water running.
She was getting ready for her day.
Acting as though nothing had shifted.
I picked up the document with my forged signature and looked at it one more time.
"Find everything," I said to Grace.
She nodded once and got to work.
I went upstairs to check on Mei.
She was already awake, the brown bear tucked under one arm, drawing something at the small desk in the corner of the guest room.
"What are you drawing?" I asked.
She held it up.
A house.
Two figures in front of it.
One tall, one small.
"That's us," she said.
"I left space on the other side for Grandma."
I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the drawing for a long time.
"Did Auntie Serena ever ask you questions about my trips?" I asked carefully.
"About where I was going?
Who I was meeting?"
Mei thought about it.
"She asked me once what you talked about on the phone with Uncle Daniel.
I didn't know, so I said I didn't know."
"Good girl."
"She asked me again a different time." Mei set down her pencil.
"She said it was a game.
Like I spy.
I didn't want to play."
I kept my voice even.
"Did you tell her anything?"
"I told her you talked about boring things." She picked up her pencil again.
"Because you do."
I almost smiled.
"I do."
Serena's door opened down the hall.
I heard her pause outside the guest room, then continue toward the stairs.
I looked at Mei's drawing again.
The two figures.
The space on the left.
May you like
Forty-eight hours, Daniel had said.
I could wait forty-eight hours.
