Chapter 11 - The Company That Never Existed
Mara met us the next morning with a photocopy of a corporate registration.
The company listed on the bank transfers, Northline Advisory, appeared to be a small consulting firm.
In reality it was a shell.
It had no employees, no legitimate office, and no verifiable consulting work.
Its registered organizer was a document service.
Its controlling owner was concealed behind another company.
Mara explained why she took Dad's file.
Dad had asked her to bring it to an independent accountant.
She was frightened that Eliam would discover it and destroy the evidence.
She had kept the file away from everyone, including me.
“You could have told me,” I said.
“You believed every accusation he made about me.”
Her words hurt because they were true.
Inside the file, Tessa found a name we had never encountered.
Catherine Vale.
She controlled the holding company that owned Northline.
Naomi searched public records.
Catherine was Eliam's mother.
I knew Eliam's mother as a woman who had died before we met.
He had shown me a photograph of her grave.
Now a living woman's signature appeared on filings submitted only six months earlier.
I stared at the documents.
“His mother is alive?”
“Someone with that legal name is,” Naomi cautioned.
Tessa located an address connected to the filings.
It belonged to a residential treatment center two states away.
Before we could decide what it meant, my mother called.
She had heard from Eliam.
“He says Mara is trying to take your inheritance,” Mom said.
“He says you're not sleeping and you're making wild accusations.”
I closed my eyes.
“Mom, none of that is true.”
“I want to believe you.”
“Then ask why he lied about being at work.”
She didn't answer.
A long moment passed.
Then she said quietly, “He came here yesterday and took your father's blue ledger.”
I stood up.
“What ledger?”
May you like
“The one Dad told me never to give him.”
