Chapter 5 - The Woman Behind the Sunglasses
Chloe Palmer asked to meet me three days before Daisy’s funeral.
Her lawyer contacted Arthur.
Arthur’s answer was no.
Mine was yes.
Dad hated the idea.
“She does not get to sit across from you and ask for sympathy.”
“I’m not giving her sympathy.”
“Then why?”
“Because I want to hear her lie to my face.”
Arthur arranged the meeting in his conference room.
No private location.
No secret conversation.
Lawyers present.
Everything documented.
Chloe arrived without sunglasses.
She looked different.
Smaller.
Her eyes were irritated, unfocused.
She walked cautiously with her attorney guiding her elbow.
For four years, I had imagined her as powerful.
The woman with access to our accounts.
The woman Mason defended.
The woman who always knew more about my household finances than I did.
Now she looked frightened.
I felt nothing.
She sat across from me.
“Alyssa.”
“Don’t use my name like we know each other.”
She swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Which part?”
Her lawyer shifted.
Arthur remained silent.
I continued.
“Are you sorry for sleeping with my husband?”
She looked down.
“Are you sorry for canceling the medication?”
Her breathing changed.
“Or are you sorry that the records survived?”
Her attorney raised a hand.
“My client is here voluntarily—”
“Then she can leave voluntarily.”
Chloe whispered, “I canceled the payment.”
The room went still.
“I know.”
“Mason told me to.”
Her attorney turned sharply.
“Chloe.”
“I’m done protecting him.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“Your counsel may want to advise you regarding self-incrimination.”
“I already gave everything to investigators.”
That surprised me.
“What everything?”
Chloe looked at me.
“Messages.”
Arthur’s face remained neutral, but I could tell he had not known that.
“What messages?” I asked.
“Mason’s.”
She rubbed her hands together.
“He told me Daisy’s doctors exaggerated the risks.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew enough then.”
“I thought delaying the payment would make him move money around.”
“What?”
Chloe took a breath.
“Mason had a liquidity problem.”
Arthur leaned closer.
“What kind?”
“Bennett Technologies was running out of cash.”
That explained something.
But not enough.
“Mason had borrowed against almost everything,” Chloe continued. “Company property. Future contracts. Personal holdings.”
“Using Stone guarantees,” Arthur said.
“Yes.”
“Some forged?”
She nodded.
Arthur wrote something.
I kept my eyes on her.
“And Daisy?”
“Mason said the medical account was one of the only accounts still funded.”
My stomach tightened.
“How much?”
“Almost six hundred thousand dollars.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“It was a reserve established years ago.”
Dad had created it.
I remembered.
When Daisy was diagnosed as an infant, my father had quietly offered to fund a medical trust.
Mason told me he refused.
He said we didn’t need Stone money.
Apparently he had lied.
Dad had funded it anyway.
Mason had taken control.
“How much is left?”
Chloe began crying.
“Almost nothing.”
I felt physically cold.
“You spent my daughter’s medical money?”
“Mason did.”
“You managed the accounts.”
“Yes.”
“So answer me.”
Her voice cracked.
“Yes.”
“On what?”
“Company expenses.”
“Anything else?”
She hesitated.
“Personal expenses.”
“Yours?”
“Yes.”
I nodded slowly.
That hurt differently than the affair.
Jewelry could be returned.
A hotel room could be forgotten.
But every dollar spent from Daisy’s medical reserve represented something my daughter might one day have needed.
A procedure.
A specialist.
Another month.
Another year.
“You knew she was sick.”
“Yes.”
“And you still took it.”
“Yes.”
I expected rage.
Instead I felt exhausted.
“Tell me about the donation form.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“Mason brought it to me.”
“When?”
“About a week before Daisy died.”
“He knew she might die?”
“He said her prognosis was deteriorating.”
“It wasn’t.”
At least not then.
Before the interruption, Daisy’s cardiologist had been discussing preschool accommodations.
Chloe shook her head.
“That’s what he told me.”
“And you signed?”
“It was a draft.”
“You signed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Her answer came so quietly I almost missed it.
“Because I wanted to see.”
The honesty was horrifying.
She did not dress it up.
She wanted her eyesight.
And somewhere along the way, Daisy had become a potential resource.
“My doctor told me there was no guarantee,” Chloe continued. “The compatibility requirements were complicated. I knew that. But Mason kept saying he could arrange things.”
“Arrange things.”
“I thought he meant legally.”
“You were having an affair with a married man whose three-year-old daughter was critically ill, spending money from that child’s medical trust, and signing donor documents before she died.”
Chloe cried harder.
“I know what it sounds like.”
“No. I don’t think you do.”
I leaned forward.
“It sounds like my daughter became less important to both of you than everything you wanted.”
Chloe couldn’t answer.
Arthur asked, “What did Mason say when you canceled the $9,000 payment?”
She looked at him.
“He texted me.”
“Exact words?”
“I gave investigators my phone.”
“What did he say?”
Her lips trembled.
“He said, ‘Do it. She has enough medication to make it through the weekend.’”
My heart stopped.
Arthur’s pen froze.
“Was that medically accurate?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because later I asked him.”
“When?”
“The night we went to the hospital.”
“What did he say?”
Chloe began crying again.
“He said, ‘It doesn’t matter now.’”
I looked away.
For the first time, I wanted the meeting to end.
Then Chloe said something that brought me back.
“There’s one thing you don’t know.”
I turned.
“What?”
“The $9,000 wasn’t supposed to remain unpaid.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Mason planned to send the payment later.”
“When?”
“After Daisy crashed.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
“He wanted the records to show an administrative delay.”
Arthur spoke.
“To create plausible deniability?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Chloe looked at me.
“Because the medication account was being audited.”
The room became completely silent.
Arthur slowly leaned back.
“What audit?”
“The Stone family office.”
My father had started questioning the medical trust.
Mason knew his theft might be discovered.
If Daisy remained in treatment, the account would continue being reviewed.
But if Daisy died…
The trust could close.
The remaining transactions might be buried in settlement paperwork.
My mouth went dry.
“So this wasn’t only about your eyes.”
Chloe shook her head.
“No.”
“It was about money.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
She looked at Arthur.
Then me.
“More than twelve million dollars had passed through accounts tied to Daisy’s trust.”
I couldn’t speak.
Twelve million.
And Chloe still wasn’t finished.
“Mason told me that if the audit reached the original trust documents, everything would collapse.”
“What would collapse?”
“His company.”
I stared at her.
“His marriage.”
She hesitated.
“And maybe his freedom.”
Arthur closed his notebook.
The meeting was over.
But as Chloe stood to leave, she stopped.
“Mason kept one set of records away from me.”
Arthur looked up.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because whenever I asked about certain transfers, he called them ‘Project D.’”
My skin prickled.
“What does D stand for?”
Chloe looked at Daisy’s pink pillow sitting beside me.
May you like
“I always thought it meant Daisy.”
And with those words, my daughter’s name became the key to a financial secret Mason had spent years hiding.
