Chapter 14: The Statement

Annette's POV

Fiona put the envelope in my hands, went out of her own office, and shut the door.

Cillian stayed.

He sat on the couch under the window with his elbows on his knees, and he did not say a word.

I slit the flap with a pencil.

The statement was forty-one pages, printed on thick paper with the bank's seal in the corner.

I turned to the first page, and the first line was a deposit.

2,400,000.00.

The date was eleven days after my parents' funeral.

"That's the settlement," I said. "That's all of it. The house, the policies, my father's pension."

"Keep reading," Cillian said quietly.

The second page was the month after.

Marchetti Training LLC, 4,500.00.

The month after that, the same.

I ran my finger down the column, and the same name kept coming back on the first of every month for ten years.

Then it grew.

A sports agent's retainer, 20,000.00 a year.

A nutritionist, a skills coach, a car service in Boston.

In the third year there was a line that said DEPOSIT, 41 WHARF STREET, 310,000.00.

"That's the house," I whispered. "Dario's first house. They said his signing bonus bought it."

Cillian stood up and came to sit on the arm of my chair.

He did not touch me.

I turned the page, and the page after, and there was a pattern I didn't want to see.

Each large withdrawal had a slip stapled behind it, with a line for the account owner's authorization.

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