Chapter 4 – The Money That Never Reached School

“I canceled it,” Evelyn said.

Marcus looked at her.

“You canceled Katie’s enrollment deposit?”

“The application wasn’t complete.”

“That wasn’t your decision to make.”

“She hadn’t submitted the necessary documents.”

Katie frowned.

“I submitted everything they asked for.”

Evelyn turned toward her.

“You missed the income verification deadline.”

“Because you told me Marcus’s financial information couldn’t be shared.”

Marcus stood beside his chair, staring at the two women.

“Evelyn, why would Katie need my financial information?”

“Because you were listed as her sponsor.”

“I was willing to sponsor her.”

“You didn’t understand the requirements.”

“Then you should have told me.”

Evelyn’s voice rose.

“You were in New York for seventeen days. Every time I tried to discuss the situation, you said you’d handle it when you got home.”

Marcus went silent.

I remembered that trip.

He’d returned exhausted, slept most of the following day, and gone straight back to work.

Katie had been away at college then. I hadn’t realized she was trying to return to school for a different qualification.

Marcus rubbed his forehead.

“Did the money come back?”

Evelyn hesitated.

“The college returned the payment.”

“Where?”

“To the account it came from.”

“Which account?”

“The family education reserve.”

Something changed in Marcus’s expression.

He went to the sideboard and retrieved his phone.

I assumed he was going to call someone, but instead he checked the time and put it away.

“Lauren, would you open the study for us?”

“Of course, sir.”

He turned to Katie.

“You said you’d come back tomorrow. Are you willing to stay a little longer tonight?”

She glanced at the clock.

“I have to be at work at seven.”

“I’ll make sure you get home.”

“I don’t need a driver.”

“Then I’ll ask Lauren to call you a cab.”

Katie studied him.

“Okay. A little longer.”

Evelyn looked furious.

“Marcus, you’re turning a family misunderstanding into an investigation.”

He picked up Katie’s check.

“Forty-two thousand dollars is not a misunderstanding.”

We moved into his study, a room at the back of the mansion with dark shelves and a fireplace that hadn’t been lit since spring.

I turned on the lamps.

Marcus asked me to bring the locked financial cabinet’s key from his desk.

He’d given me access to that cabinet months earlier when an overflowing pipe threatened the room. I knew where he kept the spare.

Evelyn watched me retrieve it.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she said quietly.

I stopped.

“No, ma’am.”

“Then stop looking at me like that.”

I looked directly at her.

“Miss Hart, I watched Katie apologize for wanting to see her father. There isn’t anything enjoyable about tonight.”

For a moment, Evelyn’s face lost its practiced composure.

“You don’t know what it’s like living in a house where you’re always competing with someone who isn’t even here.”

I didn’t understand what she meant.

Before I could answer, Marcus returned with two folders.

“Evelyn, I need you.”

She walked away from me.

Katie stood beside the bookcase, studying a row of children’s books Marcus had apparently kept from her childhood.

She touched the spine of one.

Charlotte’s Web.

“I used to make him read this,” she told me.

I smiled.

“Did he do the voices?”

“Terribly.”

She looked toward the desk.

“He’d never admit it, but he cried at the ending.”

Marcus glanced up.

“I heard that.”

For a brief moment, Katie smiled like the girl she must once have been.

Then Evelyn placed a folder on the desk.

“Here’s the education paperwork.”

Marcus opened it.

There was the application summary, the payment authorization, and a letter confirming that the college had received the requested deposit.

Beneath those documents was a second letter.

Marcus read it.

“Payment reversed. Insufficient available funds.”

He looked up.

“You said the application was incomplete.”

“It was.”

“Then why did the bank reject the payment?”

Evelyn didn’t answer.

Katie stepped closer.

“Wait. They told me the payment had been canceled by whoever sent it.”

“That’s what the school would have seen,” Marcus said. “A rejected transfer.”

He examined the date.

It was from eighteen months earlier.

“What happened to the education account?” he asked Evelyn.

She folded her arms.

“The account was consolidated with other household funds.”

“Who authorized that?”

“You gave me authority to manage household expenses.”

“Not to move Katie’s school money.”

Evelyn looked toward Katie.

“Can we please stop discussing this as though I stole something? I was managing funds you never bothered to review.”

Marcus’s expression tightened.

“Then show me the statements.”

Evelyn opened another drawer and searched through several folders.

Her movements were controlled, but I could see the strain in her hands.

She eventually produced a thin binder.

Marcus took it.

Katie had gone quiet.

“Dad,” she said, “what education account?”

He looked at her.

“The one I started when you turned eighteen.”

She blinked.

“You started an account for me?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted you to decide what you wanted to study without worrying about the cost.”

Katie sat slowly.

Marcus opened the binder.

He turned several pages, then stopped.

“Evelyn.”

She didn’t look at him.

“Where’s the original account statement?”

“Behind the authorization.”

“No, it isn’t.”

I watched him search the folder again.

Then he found a narrow envelope tucked into the back cover.

Inside was a single statement from three years earlier.

Marcus read it.

He looked at Katie.

Then at Evelyn.

“What was the total you told Katie she owed me?”

“Marcus—”

“Answer me.”

“Forty-two thousand dollars.”

Marcus turned the statement toward us.

I could see the figure printed near the bottom.

$42,000.00.

His voice became terribly quiet.

“That wasn’t the cost of raising my daughter. That was the exact amount I saved for her education.”

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