Chapter 6 - The Financial Audit
The following Monday, Morgan took emergency personal leave from her accounting firm. She spent the entire day with Marcus Vance and a forensic accountant named Sarah, auditing Julian’s entire financial history over the past five years.
What they uncovered was far worse than simple debt.
Julian hadn't just failed at business ventures; he had systematically embezzled funds from three different small-business partnerships using forged signatures under Morgan’s maiden name as a guarantor. He had accumulated over $300,000 in hidden gambling debts, funded by illicit loans from predatory lenders who were now threatening his life.
“He isn't just trying to kill you for your cottage, Morgan,” Sarah explained, pointing at a complex flowchart of bank transfers on the conference table. “He is financially bankrupt, hunted by loan sharks, and desperate. Your life insurance payout is the only thing standing between him and total destruction.”
“And the cottage?” Morgan asked quietly.
“He already forged a preliminary sales contract with a shell company owned by one of his associates,” Marcus added grimly. “If you had signed those transfer papers, the property would have been sold, the money funneled offshore within minutes, and you would have been left with nothing—or worse, dead before you could contest it.”
Morgan felt a cold fire ignite inside her chest. The man she had loved, protected, and supported for years was nothing more than a parasite wearing a human face.
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“It’s time to end this,” Morgan said firmly. “What do we need to do?”
Marcus smiled grimly, sliding a fresh document across the desk. “We give him exactly what he wants—a final meeting to sign over the Door County property. But instead of a real estate broker, the person waiting at the lawyer’s office will be the Financial Crimes Division of the Chicago Police Department.”
