Chapter 7 - THE MONEY MEANT FOR CHILDREN
Detective Ortiz did not allow Nora or Thomas to go to the station. She sent officers to the address Malcolm Price had provided, then called back to confirm he had reached a safe interview room.
Nora spent the waiting hours moving between the kitchen and the living room. Her doctor had urged her to avoid unnecessary stress, which seemed almost comical under the circumstances.
Thomas made soup and persuaded her to eat a little. Every clock in the house seemed louder than usual, reminding him of the years he had spent trying to measure away uncertainty.
By midnight, Ortiz had enough information to tell them what Malcolm claimed. The financial controller had brought bank statements, original invoices, internal approvals, and copies of records he had been ordered to destroy.
The sums were staggering. Over four years, millions of dollars designated for pediatric treatment grants and research equipment had been sent to companies describing themselves as security and facilities consultants.
Sterling Shield Consulting was only one recipient. The money moved through related accounts before reaching investments held for Vivian's benefit. Malcolm had assembled a ledger mapping the transfers.
“He's implicated himself,” Ortiz warned. “That may give the records weight, but his version still needs independent verification. He's cooperating, not receiving a declaration of innocence.”
Nora appreciated the distinction. Malcolm had seen the machinery turning and helped keep it moving. Fear might explain some of his decisions, but the children left waiting still existed.
The following morning, Leah Brooks arranged a meeting with a representative of the charitable foundation's independent trustees. The trustees had been excluded from key financial decisions for years.
The representative, Dr. Evelyn Graham, was a retired pediatric surgeon with white hair cut close to her face. She arrived carrying a battered folder rather than a designer handbag.
“I knew Ada,” Evelyn told Nora. “She wanted the bracelet sold only when doing so would create a permanent treatment endowment. Vivian promised the gala would honor that condition.”
Evelyn had spent months asking why grants approved by her committee remained unpaid. The administrative office blamed temporary accounting delays and increasing insurance requirements.
She opened the folder to reveal correspondence from clinics awaiting promised funding. One concerned a mobile therapy program for children recovering from complicated surgeries. Another requested essential monitoring equipment.
Nora stared at the letters. Her own baby had survived the evening's violence, and she had experienced the astonishing relief of hearing a healthy heartbeat. Other families were still waiting for that reassurance.
“Can the trustees access emergency funding?” she asked. Evelyn nodded cautiously. “Some restricted donations are untouched. But we need control of the accounts before we can guarantee where anything goes.”
Thomas looked toward the workshop window, where a sheet of plywood still covered the damaged section. Vivian's greed had reached from a glass ballroom into places that had never seen her diamonds.
The detective later confirmed that investigators had obtained additional records by warrant. The companies receiving foundation money shared directors, addresses, or bank signatories with Vivian's private investment network.
The ledgers also showed a proposed insurance claim drafted before the gala. Its narrative described the Aurora Bracelet as missing after an external appraiser's unauthorized access to the exhibition area.
Nora read the summary Leah was authorized to share. She felt the same chill she had experienced when Claire's video revealed Vivian's plan. Even the wording of the accusation had been prepared.
The claim had not yet been submitted, and the insurer had not paid anything. That mattered legally. It did not erase the evidence of planning or the actual transfers from the foundation's accounts.
Grant Voss, confronted with the newly discovered records, resigned from the foundation and retained a lawyer. He declined to answer questions voluntarily but preserved his devices under legal order.
The public response shifted unevenly. Some people apologized to Nora and deleted their insults. Others insisted that anyone challenging Vivian must be jealous, opportunistic, or secretly seeking money.
Nora stopped measuring truth by comments. She began recording her own account for investigators in carefully organized sections, each accompanied by dates, inventory numbers, and copies of original messages.
There were moments when the work exhausted her. At night she still dreamed of the catalogue approaching her face and woke reaching for the curve of her belly.
Thomas learned not to tell her the nightmare was over. Instead he sat beside her until she could orient herself to the familiar walls, offering water and conversation without demanding she feel safe immediately.
One afternoon she confessed that the worst memory was not the blow. It was looking around the ballroom and seeing people decide, one by one, that helping her might inconvenience them.
Thomas listened without interrupting. “I was one of those people a long time ago,” he said. “When they asked me to sign the false appraisal, I told myself nobody would be hurt.”
“You didn't know the harm would be this large,” Nora replied. “No,” he answered. “But I knew the paper wasn't true. That's enough to keep me responsible for my part.”
His candor hurt, but it also changed something between them. Nora no longer needed her father to be faultless. She needed him to face the truth without retreating into excuses.
Dr. Graham called again with difficult news. The foundation's accounts were being placed under independent review, and certain disputed funds could not be disbursed until their status was established.
The surviving trustees were seeking emergency support to prevent interruptions to essential patient programs. Nora asked whether she could help, though her own maternity leave and damaged business were uncertain.
“Help us explain what the money was meant to do,” Evelyn said. “People see the bracelet and think this is a scandal about jewelry. They need to see the people behind it.”
Leah advised careful separation between the criminal investigation and charitable advocacy. Nora agreed. She would not use unproven allegations as fundraising copy, nor disclose information that might compromise testimony.
Instead, she worked with Evelyn on a statement about the foundation's original mission and verified outstanding needs. It would be released through the independent trustees, not through Vivian's compromised office.
That night, Thomas retrieved a small silver star from his workshop drawer. It was a practice piece Nora had made as a child while learning to engrave, crooked and imperfect around the edges.
“Your mother kept this in her wallet,” he said. Nora laughed through sudden tears. “I remember being furious because it didn't look like yours.” Thomas placed it gently in her palm.
“Rose loved it because you made it yourself.” Nora closed her fingers around the star. For the first time since the gala, she thought about her unborn daughter without imagining the word THIEF.
At the end of the week, Evelyn called again. A special meeting of the trustees had been scheduled, and Vivian had announced that she would attend despite requests that she step aside.
“She says she is bringing proof that your father has been dishonest for decades,” Evelyn warned. Thomas glanced toward Rose's envelope, already copied and safely held by investigators.
May you like
Nora understood the threat. Vivian was going to expose the old appraisal, hoping it would poison everything else. The past was no longer waiting quietly in a locked drawer.
“Then we tell it first,” Nora said. She looked at Thomas, giving him the choice. After a long silence, he nodded, accepting that his reputation might be lost before it could be rebuilt.
