The silence that followed was far worse than any of their answers.
PART 2
I held my breath, holding the phone closer to the vent.
It took Eric a few seconds to answer. “She doesn’t monitor those liquid reserve accounts. She trusts me.”
Sarah gave a dry chuckle. “Classic. She spends all day finding financial fraud in other people’s companies, but never looks at her own backyard.”
Richard admitted that a portion of that $480,000 had gone toward covering overdue payroll at his tech startup, but the rest had paid for high-end luxury car leases, private trips, and personal expenses. Eleanor brushed it off with a line I will never forget:
“Family money shifts pockets, dear. It doesn’t change owners.”
Twenty minutes later, I heard the heavy front door click shut as they all left. I slipped out through the garden gate and walked over to Evelyn’s house. She was waiting in her kitchen with a pot of black coffee and her laptop open on the counter.
