Chapter 4 - Serena Hadn't Come as Marcus's Girlfriend
Marcus shot out of his chair.
“Shut up.”
Serena didn't flinch.
That was the moment I stopped believing she was merely his girlfriend.
She stood.
“My name is Serena Bell.”
Marcus stared at her.
Teresa closed her eyes.
Julian looked between them.
“What?”
Serena opened her handbag.
She removed a business card and placed it beside Ellen's folder.
Serena Bell.
Forensic accountant.
Marcus had introduced her to us six months earlier as a consultant he had started dating.
That was partially true.
They had dated.
But they met because Marcus's business lender hired Serena's firm to review discrepancies in his company's books.
Marcus apparently believed charm would keep her close enough to control what she saw.
Instead, Serena discovered North Shore Heritage.
“I couldn't discuss client information with Clara,” Serena said. “But once Marcus brought me into this house socially, I started seeing names and transactions I'd already encountered professionally.”
Marcus stepped toward her.
“You used me.”
Serena almost laughed.
“You invited the accountant reviewing your books to family dinners and then discussed transfers in front of her.”
That shut him up.
She turned to me.
“I couldn't tell you what I knew without authorization. But I could tell Ellen to look harder once the proper parties were involved.”
So that was how Ellen found the older transfers so quickly.
Serena hadn't solved the case.
She had pointed us toward the pattern.
Teresa remained strangely calm.
That worried me.
“What's North Shore really for?” I asked.
Marcus answered first.
“Real estate.”
Serena shook her head.
“Some of it.”
“What else?”
Her eyes moved toward Teresa.
“Debt.”
Teresa stared back.
Not frightened now.
Angry.
“What kind of debt?” Julian asked.
Serena exhaled.
“Yours.”
May you like
Julian went still.
And for the first time that night, my husband's violence and his mother's financial control seemed connected to something that began long before I joined their family.
