Chapter 8: The Account in Mia’s Name
Mia stared at Grace.
“I have never opened an account at that bank.”
Daniel stopped near the elevator and looked over his shoulder.
“Ask your best friend how innocent she really is.”
The officer moved him forward, but the smile he gave me followed us back into the conference room.
Mia placed her wallet and phone on the table.
“Search everything.”
Grace shook her head.
“We’ll do this properly.”
The bank representative opened the account file on his laptop.
“It was created online eleven months ago.
The identification belongs to Mia, but the contact number ends in 4408.”
“That’s Daniel’s office number,” I said.
Mia leaned closer.
“What email address did he use?”
The representative turned the screen.
The address contained Mia’s name with one extra letter.
“He wanted a second person to blame,” Grace said.
My phone rang.
Daniel was calling from his attorney’s office.
Grace pressed the speaker button.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“To give you a way out.”
“Of what?”
“Withdraw your accusations.
Tell the bank Mia managed your inheritance.
I’ll restore half the money and agree to counseling.”
Mia closed her eyes.
“You put the account in my name,” she said.
Daniel paused.
“You had access to Karen’s information.”
“So did you.”
“Who will a jury believe?
A husband or a jealous friend carrying secret photographs?”
I looked at the screen.
“A bank employee saw you submit the transfer.”
“She approved paperwork.
That doesn’t prove who prepared it.”
Grace wrote a sentence on her legal pad and pushed it toward me.
Ask about the anniversary trip.
“Where were you planning to take me for our anniversary?”
Daniel laughed softly.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You charged a hotel deposit to the hidden account.
Where was it?”
Silence answered first.
Then the bank representative turned his laptop around.
A reservation appeared under Daniel’s name—for two adults and one child.
“You used Mia’s false account to pay for it,” I said.
Daniel ended the call.
Three days later, we sat across from an investigator while Mia signed a statement.
He compared her real identification with the altered copy.
“This photograph was taken from your employer’s website,” he said.
“Daniel threatened to call my employer,” Mia replied.
“He needed them to dismiss you before anyone examined the account.”
My hand closed over hers.
“You’re not facing this alone.”
The investigator placed Daniel’s office access records beside the account application.
“These logins, the false email, and the transfer trail all lead to the same computer.”
Grace looked at me.
“The bank can now return the remaining funds and begin recovering the rest from the frozen property.”
Mia’s shoulders dropped.
Tears ran down her cheeks, and this time I moved first.
“I should have trusted you enough to tell you sooner,” she said.
“And I should have known you would never take from me.”
“Can you forgive me?”
“I can forgive fear.
I can’t forgive another secret.”
“There won’t be one.”
Grace’s phone vibrated.
She read the message and looked up.
“Daniel has been formally charged with forgery, financial fraud, and identity theft.”
I thought relief would feel like celebration.
Instead, I held Mia’s hand while both of us cried quietly.
Then Claire called.
“Karen, Lily keeps asking whether you’re coming back.”
I wiped my face.
“Tell her I’m already on my way.”
