Chapter 19 - THE CENTRAL TRUTHThe central truth arrived through accounting before violence.
Elaine Porter reconstructed Briarstone’s finances.
Jason had not been hiding a secret offshore empire.
He had been moving value.
Slowly.
Bonuses.
Consulting agreements.
Vehicle expenses.
Personal travel.
Payments to Madison’s company.
Deferred compensation.
At the same time, he reduced his reported salary and told me Briarstone had no cash available for distributions.
Why?
Because divorce was already in his mind.
An email to his accountant eight months before I filed:
Keep taxable comp lean this year. Personal situation may change.
Not illegal by itself.
But relevant.
Then another:
I don’t want Iris seeing value she can claim she created.
There.
He understood my contribution.
He was planning around it.
The burn happened after I discovered one piece of that planning.
Did he scald me to kill me?
No evidence.
To injure me?
The evidence increasingly supported deliberate force.
Why?
To frighten me away from the financial records.
Not a master conspiracy.
An angry man with a boiling pot, a failing sense of control, and a belief that I would cover for him afterward.
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He was right about the last part.
For a while.
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