Chapter 6: What Marcus Found
Marcus Holt arrived at Diane's office at nine the next morning.
He was fifty-four, wore a gray suit that had seen courtrooms, and set a manila folder on the conference table before he'd finished sitting down.
Renata sat beside me.
Diane sat across.
"All right," Marcus said.
"Here's what we have."
He opened the folder.
"The wire transfer from the joint wedding account — $30,786 — went to a business account registered to a company called Hale Digital Ventures LLC.
That company was incorporated eight months ago.
The sole director is Weston Hale.
The registered address is his mother's house."
Corinne's house.
"The amendment adding Weston as secondary signatory to your agency's operating account was submitted online using your login credentials and confirmed with a passcode sent to the secondary number — the one added to your account without your knowledge.
That number is registered to a prepaid SIM purchased in Corinne Hale's name."
Renata's hand found mine under the table.
"The beneficiary change on your investment account was submitted through the account portal eleven months ago.
Same login credentials.
The IP address traces to a coffee shop two blocks from Weston's office.
He was there — we have a receipt from his business credit card, same date, forty-minute window."
"Can you prove he was the one on the laptop?" I asked.
"Not yet.
But the pattern is consistent and documented.
Three separate financial instruments accessed without your knowledge, all benefiting Weston Hale directly, all executed using your credentials." Marcus looked at me steadily.
"This is fraud, Ava.
Potentially wire fraud, which is federal.
And the forged signature on the amendment — that's a separate charge."
"What do I do?"
"You've already done the first things right — you froze the accounts, you changed the locks, you documented the porch incident.
Today, you file a police report.
Not a complaint — a report, with all of this attached." He tapped the folder.
"I have a contact at the financial crimes unit.
This goes to them directly."
"And the operating account?
The two hundred and forty thousand?"
"Frozen as of this morning.
He cannot touch it.
If he tries, it triggers an automatic alert to the fraud team and to me."
I exhaled slowly.
"There's one more thing," Marcus said.
He pulled a second sheet from the folder.
"I ran a search on Hale Digital Ventures.
It has one client on record.
A retainer agreement, signed four months ago." He turned the page toward me.
The client was my agency.
My agency was paying Weston's shell company a monthly retainer of $4,500 for "strategic consulting services."
I stared at the page.
"I never signed that," I said.
"No," Marcus said.
"You didn't."
The room was very quiet.
"How long?" I asked.
"Four months of payments.
Eighteen thousand dollars total, drawn from your operating account."
Renata made a sound beside me — not a word, just a breath that carried everything she wasn't saying.
"He set up a company," I said slowly, "that my company was paying.
While he was living in my house.
While I was pregnant."
"Yes."
I looked at Diane.
"When can we move?"
"Marcus files today.
The fraud unit will want to interview you this week.
In the meantime—" She paused.
"Weston called my office this morning.
He left a message saying he wants to discuss a 'private resolution' before this goes further."
"What does that mean?"
"It means he knows we know.
And he's scared." She looked at me carefully.
"It also means he may try to approach you directly.
Possibly through someone you trust."
My phone buzzed on the table.
A text from Paige — Weston's sister.
*Ava, I know this looks bad.
Please just hear him out before you do anything permanent.
He loves you.
He made mistakes.
Please.*
I turned the phone so Diane and Marcus could see it.
Marcus wrote something in his notes.
"Don't respond," Diane said.
"I know," I said.
But I looked at Paige's message for a moment longer than I needed to.
May you like
Because underneath the words, I could hear something that sounded less like loyalty to her brother and more like fear.
And I wondered what Paige knew that she hadn't said yet.
