Chapter 5 - DANIEL’S THIRD CARDDaniel had the paperwork waiting when I arrived at his office.
He slid it across the conference table.
Family Support debit authorization.
Primary account holder:
Cadence Mercer.
Authorized user:
Andrew Mercer.
Additional authorized user:
Bonnie Mercer.
My breath stopped.
“My mother-in-law has a debit card on my account?”
Daniel nodded once.
“Approval was submitted electronically.”
“By me?”
“That’s the issue.”
The authorization contained my electronic signature.
Correct formatting.
Correct account security questions.
Correct final four digits of my Social Security number.
But I had never signed it.
“When?”
“Fourteen months ago.”
The room went cold.
Daniel continued:
“I need to be careful. Electronic authorization could have been made from a device you used or by someone with credentials. We cannot call this forgery yet.”
“Who requested the card?”
“Andrew’s email initiated the service ticket.”
There.
“Did you call me?”
“Our operations specialist verified through the account email.”
“My email?”
“Yes.”
“Which email?”
He turned the page.
A Gmail address I rarely used.
Cadence.Mercer.family@gmail.
Andrew knew the password because we once used it for household utilities.
I had forgotten it existed.
Daniel said:
“Bonnie’s card has been active thirteen months.”
“How much?”
“We’re still categorizing.”
“Daniel.”
He looked at me.
“At least sixty-eight thousand dollars in card transactions.”
I stopped breathing.
“That cannot be right.”
“It may include legitimate family-support spending.”
“I never authorized her to have a card.”
“I know.”
That sentence mattered.
He turned another page.
“Cadence, there are also transfers I want you to explain.”
“Which ones?”
“Payments to HM Property Services.”
I stared at the name.
“Never heard of it.”
May you like
Daniel nodded.
“That is why we’re auditing.”
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