Chapter 6 - Emma Had Discovered Missing Money Too
The affair explained Marcus.
It did not explain why he was so desperate for the phone.
Then Emma showed me another recording.
It was from my small home office.
Bianca and Marcus were at the desk.
Invoices spread across it.
My contracting business was modest.
Six employees.
Kitchen renovations.
Decks.
Roofing.
Nothing glamorous.
But it supported everyone in that house.
Marcus had begun “helping” Bianca with bookkeeping while my regular accountant recovered from surgery.
I approved it.
Another mistake.
On Emma’s video, Marcus pointed to three invoices.
Bianca said:
“Vittorio never checks vendor names.”
Marcus answered:
“He will if the account gets too low.”
Then Bianca:
“Not before we’re gone.”
I paused the video.
Rewound.
Listened again.
Not before we’re gone.
The next morning my accountant and I reviewed six months of payments.
A vendor called Hale Home Supply had received $47,800.
The company technically existed.
Marcus owned it.
Some materials had been purchased.
Many had not.
Invoices were inflated.
Others duplicated.
Bianca had approved them using access I gave her.
The affair was only half the betrayal.
They were siphoning money too.
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And Lucy had accidentally become the witness neither of them knew how to manage.
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