Chapter 4 - IT WASN'T JUST ASPEN
The Aspen trip cost $8,740.
Emma learned that from attorney Mara Sloan, not Detective Chen.
Different Mara.
Family-law attorney.
Emma sat in Claire’s guest room two weeks after leaving the hospital with Ethan asleep beside her in a portable bassinet.
She looked stronger.
Not well.
Stronger.
The account statement lay across her lap.
Ryan had paid for:
the suite,
private transfer,
restaurant deposit,
lift passes,
champagne,
spa charges,
and one jewelry purchase.
Emma stared at the last item.
$3,200.
“Who was the jewelry for?”
Attorney Sloan hesitated.
“We don’t know yet.”
Emma looked up.
“Ask him.”
“We will.”
The marriage had other problems now.
Not just emotional ones.
Ryan had moved $38,000 from their joint emergency account three days before Ethan was born.
Emma had not noticed.
She was in labor.
The money went to a new account at another bank.
Ryan was the sole owner.
Why?
He told his attorney it was for “tax organization.”
Mara Sloan did not believe that without records.
Then another transaction appeared.
$250,000 life insurance policy.
Insured:
Emma Parker.
Policy owner:
Ryan Parker.
Application date:
six weeks before delivery.
Emma’s hands went cold.
“I knew we had insurance.”
“You did.”
“But not this one.”
“No.”
The policy itself was not suspicious merely because it existed.
Spouses often insure one another.
The problem was consent.
The application included an electronic acknowledgment appearing to be Emma’s.
She did not remember signing it.
Mara said:
“We don’t jump to conclusions.”
Emma looked at her.
“I almost died while he was partying, and six weeks earlier he took out a policy on me.”
“I know how it looks.”
“What matters is what we can prove.”
Emma closed her eyes.
May you like
Evidence.
That word was becoming the only stable thing in her life.
