“You’re scaring me.”
I opened the first folder and placed the corporate filing on the table.
Her name appeared beneath BENEFICIAL OWNER.
Celeste’s face emptied.
Graham recovered first.
“That company was created for tax planning.
Celeste was helping me.
You don’t understand the structure.”
Owen slid forward the transfer summary.
“I understand it very well.”
Celeste looked at Graham.
“You said those payments were from your clients.”
“They were.”
“No,” I said.
“They were from my company.”
Graham turned on me.
“Our company.
Our money.”
“You hold no ownership interest in it.”
“We’re married.”
Marissa spoke calmly.
“Ownership and marital claims are legal questions, not permissions to forge signatures or submit fictitious invoices.”
Celeste began to cry.
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“You signed the company filings,” Owen said.
“You received distributions.
You used the account to pay your rent and medical expenses.”
“Graham handled everything.
He told me Adeline knew.”
I placed printed copies of her messages on the table.
She recognized them before reading the first line.
The color left her face.
Graham snatched the top page and scanned it.
“These are private.
You had no right.”
“They were recovered from a company device under its retention policy,” Marissa said.
“The originals have been preserved.”
He tore the page in half.
No one moved.
Owen opened the second folder and placed an identical copy beside the torn one.
“There are backups,” he said.
Graham’s confidence finally cracked.
He pointed at me.
“You set this up because you heard something at the hospital and lost control.
You’re vindictive, unstable, and obsessed with money.
I’ll tell everyone what you’re really like.”
“Tell them,”
I said.
He seemed confused by the absence of fear.
“I’ll take the house.
I’ll take half the company.
I’ll make sure every employee knows you destroyed a new mother because you couldn’t have a child of your own.”
Celeste whispered his name, but he kept going.
“You think a few invoices frighten me? I built your reputation.
I introduced you to half your clients.
