Wade Explained The Loan Until His Own Emails Arrived

Wade brought a silver pen to his deposition and spent the first ten minutes clicking it.

We sat in a conference room above a title office. A court reporter placed a small machine at the end of the table. Wade's lawyer asked him to stop clicking.

Mara began with the purchase price.

"Two hundred forty-four thousand dollars?"

"That's what the statement says."

"Is it correct?"

"Yes."

She moved through each account that had supplied the money. Mateo sat beside me with his chart turned facedown. We had agreed that I would take notes and say nothing unless Mara asked.

Wade called the Alder Finch payments an investment.

"Where is the investment agreement?" Mara asked.

"Celeste handled that."

"What did she receive for the money?"

"We were going to work it out."

"Did Thao Mercer Cabinet Works receive an ownership interest in Silver Switch?"

"No."

One answer. One empty place where a contract should have been.

Mara showed him the school reserve pledge.

"You understood this account was set aside for June Thao's education?"

"Celeste said it was family money."

"That wasn't my question."

His lawyer shifted in his chair.

"Yes," Wade said.

"Did you speak with Neng Thao about using it?"

"I understood he was fine with it."

"From him?"

"From Celeste."

Then came the email.

Wade read it. The pen stayed still.

Mara asked what he had meant by needing my signature before the lender asked again.

He said he couldn't recall.

She showed him the next message in the chain. He had written that the lender's checklist required consent from both deposit owners and that my page was still missing.

The date was the day before my supposed signature appeared.

"Did you receive a signed page afterward?"

"Yes."

"From whom?"

"Celeste."

"Did you ask Neng whether he signed it?"

"No."

His lawyer called for a break.

I went downstairs and stood near a vending machine. My hands wanted work. I folded a paper cup until its rim split.

Mateo joined me.

"He knew enough to ask for the missing page," I said.

"Yes. Keep the rest tied to what the records prove."

Back upstairs, Mara asked about his relationship with Celeste. He admitted they had been a couple during the purchase. I knew that already. Hearing him say it into a microphone still made my chest ache.

Mara asked no questions about their bedroom. She asked who expected to own the arcade and who had controlled the money.

Those answers were harder for him.

The loan file brought another break in the case. The electronic signing report showed that the pledge invitation went to an address Celeste controlled. A bank employee had accepted a scanned consent page without making the required second-owner check.

The bank's own review confirmed the missed step. Its lawyer sent Mara a letter stating that the deposit would remain intact during the dispute. The lender began seeking other security from Wade.

That did not erase the pledge yet. Mara wanted a signed release, not a nice sentence in an email.

By the end of the month, Mateo's report accounted for the full $149,420. His schedules separated the $86,940 transfer from the $62,480 royalty receipts so no dollar appeared twice.

Some money remained in Alder Finch. Much of the rest had gone toward the arcade purchase. Personal spending filled the gap. The report included the $1,840 fee within the outflows, not as another missing amount added on top.

I read that footnote three times.

Mateo also marked the blanks. A missing receipt stayed missing until someone produced it. He refused to call every meal theft or every cash withdrawal fraud. When a real shop bill turned up, he moved it to the right column. That made his report harder to dismiss, and it made me trust him more.

Celeste's lawyer offered a settlement. I could keep the shop tools if I dropped the design claim and accepted half the school reserve as my share.

I set the offer beside a cabinet hinge.

"She still thinks it's the same meeting," I told Mara.

"What do you want me to answer?"

"An accounting of all assets. Release of the school money. Recognition of the actual design rights. A fair division after the missing money is restored."

"And the fees?"

"Ask for the fees her conduct caused."

Mara sent the counterproposal. We made no demand that they avoid the police. Any report of false signatures would stand on its own.

Two days later, Celeste appeared at my shop carrying the old blue binder she had always kept beside her desk.

She waited until I put down my carving knife.

"If you use what's in here," she said, "Wade will say I did everything."