Chapter 14 - HAROLDHarold asked to meet me.
Daniel advised against private conversation.
We met with attorneys.
Harold looked ten years older.
“I didn’t create HM to steal from you.”
“What did you create it for?”
“To have income.”
“You were billing my account.”
“Andrew suggested it.”
“For what work?”
Harold looked down.
“Property oversight.”
“What property?”
“My house.”
I stared.
“You billed me to oversee maintenance on your own house.”
“When you say it like that—”
“How else should I say it?”
His lawyer intervened.
Harold continued more carefully.
He said Andrew wanted to replace direct family gifts with business payments because he believed it would “look cleaner.”
Cleaner to whom?
No good answer.
Taxes?
Accountants?
Me?
Harold admitted doing little actual work corresponding to invoices.
There it was.
Not sophisticated fraud.
Paper labels replacing honest requests.
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
Harold’s eyes filled.
“Because Bonnie said you were tired of us.”
That phrase returned in different clothing.
Everyone had been told something about me.
Rich.
Judgmental.
Tired.
May you like
Cold.
Easier to deceive than ask.
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