In a locked drawer in the home office, I found the original company agreement confirming my fifty-percent ownership. I found records of my inheritance investment.

I found copies of every mortgage payment made from my salary during the years his business struggled.

Then I found a hotel charge, paid with a company credit card. Two nights at a boutique hotel in Charleston. Daniel had told me he was attending a contractors’ conference in Richmond.

Then came another charge the following month. A restaurant. A jewelry store. A transfer of thirty-two thousand dollars to a newly created consulting firm called Northstar Brand Strategies, registered to a woman named Natalie Cross.

I searched her name. Natalie was thirty-one, worked in marketing, and had recently begun appearing in Bennett Residential Group’s social media posts. In one photo she stood beside Daniel at a ribbon-cutting, her hand resting lightly on his back.

The caption identified her as the company’s new strategic consultant. In another, she wore the bracelet bought with our company card.