Chapter 9 - THE ACCOUNTING DID NOT SAY WHAT I WANTED
The preliminary accounting arrived.
I expected a clean list of stolen gifts.
It wasn’t.
Total questioned activity:
$12,840.
Then categories.
Clearly authorized:
$4,260.
Shared family expenses.
Approved gifts.
One Livia camp payment Cecily confirmed.
Remove.
Likely authorized but poorly documented:
$2,190.
Phone instructions.
Receipts matching Cecily’s habits.
Could not fairly call misuse.
Remaining questionable:
$6,390.
Within that:
$1,500 education reallocation.
$900 camp reallocation.
$620 bicycle.
$380 bracelet interference? Refund returned to Cecily, so no financial loss.
Several smaller birthday/holiday purchases.
Then $1,740 of purchases not for Livia at all.
Marietta’s own household:
A table centerpiece.
Two event charges.
One salon invoice.
She said Cecily authorized as birthday gifts.
Cecily remembered one.
Not others.
Could be memory.
No giant theft.
No reason to call Marietta a criminal mastermind.
Then something stranger.
Some questioned purchases were not about money.
Marietta would cancel an Aubrielle order, then later make a separate purchase for Livia from her own personal card.
No financial benefit.
Why?
Ranking.
Visible control.
She wanted the girl she considered “real family” to receive the grander object from Grandma.
The money was secondary.
Then digital experts authenticated three fake message screenshots.
How?
Marietta’s device contained drafts made in an image-editing app.
Not every suspicious screenshot.
Three.
One said:
CECILY:
If Weston chooses Aubrielle over this family, he can live without my money.
Fabricated.
My stomach turned.
That sentence was almost exactly what Marietta had threatened at the party.
Another:
CECILY:
Livia comes first with family heirlooms.
Fabricated from fragments of real messages.
Third:
CECILY:
I am tired of paying for a child who is not ours by blood.
Entirely fabricated.
Cecily cried when she saw it.
I did not comfort her immediately.
Because she had given Marietta some smaller real phrases to build from.
But this was different.
Forgery of communication.
Not legal document.
Still deception.
Then Marietta’s lawyer argued:
“These were private notes and mockups, not necessarily sent.”
One was found in my message history.
Sent.
Second sent to Daniel.
Third never proven sent.
Good.
Distinguish.
Then the education transfer.
Marietta’s phone contained a note:
Move Aubrielle allocation if Weston ignores Mom again.
That showed motive.
Not necessarily legal guilt.
Then another:
Livia shouldn’t lose because Mom keeps overcompensating for adoption.
There.
Overcompensating.
No ambiguity about worldview.
Then the birthday livestream.
At 2:19, before the slap, Marietta had said something near the tablet.
Audio experts could recover only part:
“…Mom won’t stop me over…”
Then unclear.
Not enough.
Do not invent.
The evidence was already strong without miracle audio.
The night before Chapter Ten’s hearing on interim accounting, Cecily asked:
“What if I created this?”
“What?”
“Marietta’s belief.”
I stared.
“You didn’t make her hit Aubrielle.”
“No.”
“You didn’t fabricate the screenshots.”
“No.”
“You did use inheritance threats.”
“Yes.”
“You did talk about blood heirlooms.”
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
“Then I helped build the language she used.”
That was fair.
Not equal culpability.
Shared environment.
Then Naomi said:
“Tomorrow is not final judgment.”
“What happens?”
“The court decides whether Marietta exceeded the limited power, whether temporary accounting controls are needed, and what evidence remains disputed.”
Not prison.
Not final restitution.
Not estate decision.
Good.
Then:
“Will we know whether she deliberately used Cecily’s money to rank the girls?”
“We probably know enough already.”
May you like
Chapter Ten was not going to end everything.
It was only going to name what had been happening.
