Chapter 6 - The Forensic Audit
With Derek and Melissa gone, I spent the following week working sixteen hours a day with a forensic accountant and a elder law attorney named Arthur Pendelton.
We sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by three years of forged checks, bank statements, and credit applications that Derek and Melissa had secretly taken out in my mother’s name.
"It’s extensive, Sarah," Mr. Pendelton noted, reviewing the line items on his laptop screen. "Over the past twenty-four months, Melissa transferred a total of $94,000 directly from your mother's Social Security and late husband’s pension accounts into her personal boutique account. Furthermore, they took out two high-interest personal loans totaling $45,000 using your mother’s identity."
"Will she be held liable for those loans?" I asked, my blood boiling.
"Not a chance," Mr. Pendelton smiled grimly. "Because we have the handwriting analysis proving forgery, plus the criminal domestic violence charges currently pending against Melissa. The state prosecutor is upgrading her charges to aggravated felony elder fraud, identity theft, and grand larceny."
"What about Derek?"
"Derek signed three of the loan affidavits as a co-witness," Mr. Pendelton explained. "He’s legally considered an accomplice. The district attorney offered him a choice this morning: testify against Melissa and agree to full financial restitution, or face up to eight years in state prison alongside her."
"Did he take the deal?"
"Without hesitation," Mr. Pendelton said, shaking his head with disgust. "He threw his wife completely under the bus to save his own skin."
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I looked out the kitchen window toward the garden. My mother was standing outside in the morning air, wearing a clean yellow cardigan, gently watering her rose bushes with a smile on her face. Her jaw had healed, the bruises were fading, and the colour had returned to her cheeks.
"Let him testify," I said quietly. "Let them tear each other apart in court."
