Chapter 5 - THE LAPTOP IN DREW'S CLOSET
Rachel Kim arranged legal recovery of the laptop.
No dramatic break-in.
No grabbing it from Drew's home.
A preservation demand.
Then a court request after Drew denied possession.
Once Cody's statement became part of the record, Drew surrendered the device.
She claimed she forgot she had it.
No one believed that.
Forensic review took four days.
Maggie spent those four days trying to give Theo a birthday redo without pretending the first one had never happened.
No giant replacement party.
Theo did not want one.
Instead six friends came over.
Pizza.
A small cake.
Cody was invited.
Drew was not.
Cody stood very far from the cake.
Theo noticed.
“You can come closer.”
“No.”
Theo smiled.
“Fair.”
When candles were lit, Cody clasped both hands behind his back.
Theo blew them out.
Everyone cheered.
Maggie cried in the kitchen where nobody saw.
Almost nobody.
Cody did.
He came in.
“Are you sad?”
“No.”
“You're crying.”
“Adults do both.”
He nodded.
Then:
“My mom says you're trying to steal our house.”
Maggie stared.
“What?”
“She said because you stopped paying, we might lose it.”
Maggie crouched.
“Cody, that is adult financial stuff.”
“Is it true?”
Maggie chose carefully.
“I am not taking your house.”
“Are we losing it?”
“I don't know.”
That was honest.
Drew's mortgage was not directly paid by Maggie.
But some of the money supporting Drew's lifestyle certainly helped her afford it.
Cody nodded.
“Mom says everything bad is because Theo cried.”
Maggie's chest tightened.
“That is not true.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Cody looked toward the party room.
“Because she was scared before he cried.”
Children noticed everything.
Again.
The forensic report on Daniel's laptop arrived the next morning.
Drew had used it repeatedly after Daniel's death.
Not just for photos.
Foundation portal.
Family trust portal.
Maggie's email.
Saved passwords.
The devices logs matched multiple suspicious approvals.
But one fact complicated everything.
Some activity predated Daniel's death.
Daniel himself had approved certain payments to Drew.
Including one scholarship.
Including emergency transfers.
Including a large payment from the educational trust.
Maggie stared.
“Daniel knew?”
Aaron answered:
“Some of it.”
Her stomach twisted.
For three years Daniel had existed in memory as the reasonable one.
The person who often told Maggie:
“Your sister will never learn if you keep rescuing her.”
Had he been rescuing Drew privately?
Emails answered.
Drew wrote Daniel:
Maggie will say no.
Daniel replied:
Then don't ask Maggie.
Maggie closed her eyes.
Another:
She'll judge me.
Daniel:
I'll handle it.
He had helped Drew behind Maggie's back.
Why?
Aaron found more.
Daniel had worried Maggie's relationship with Drew was becoming toxic.
He believed quietly supporting Drew reduced conflict.
Another person calling secrecy protection.
Maggie felt betrayed by a dead man.
An impossible kind of anger.
No confrontation.
No explanation.
No chance for apology.
Then one email changed the tone.
Daniel to Drew, seven months before his death:
This is the last time. You lied about Cody's tuition and duplicated the invoice. If you use Maggie's accounts again, I will tell her everything.
Maggie stared.
Daniel had discovered some fraud.
He planned to tell her.
Did he?
No.
He died first.
Then Drew kept using his credentials.
Maggie whispered:
“She knew he was going to expose her.”
Aaron nodded.
“Looks that way.”
“Did she do anything to him?”
He immediately stopped her.
“No evidence of anything like that.”
Maggie felt ashamed.
Grief and betrayal could make imagination cruel.
Daniel died of a documented medical condition.
No mystery.
No conspiracy.
The truth was enough.
He enabled Drew.
Then tried to stop.
Then died before completing the correction.
Maggie asked:
“What was the last payment he questioned?”
Aaron turned the page.
Not tuition.
Not car.
A transfer of $85,000 from the educational trust into Howerin Family Services.
Purpose listed:
Property stabilization for beneficiary housing.
Maggie frowned.
“Property stabilization?”
“A house.”
“Whose?”
Aaron looked at her.
“Drew's.”
May you like
The trust intended for children's education had helped make the down payment on Drew's home.
And Daniel had signed.
