{"id":9878,"date":"2026-09-12T17:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T17:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=9878"},"modified":"2026-09-12T17:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T17:42:45","slug":"part-13-michaels-final-amendment-mentioned-my-name-years-before-brian-met-me-until-an-old-birth-certificate-revealed-which-angela-he-meant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=9878","title":{"rendered":"PART 13 \u2013 Michael\u2019s Final Amendment Mentioned My Name Years Before Brian Met Me, Until an Old Birth Certificate Revealed Which Angela He Meant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I read the sentence for the fourth time.<\/p>\n<p>If Angela ever learns the truth, tell her I am sorry.<\/p>\n<p>The handwriting was shaky, nothing like the confident signature on Michael Brooks\u2019s older company documents.<\/p>\n<p>But the name was unmistakable.<\/p>\n<p>Angela.<\/p>\n<p>My name.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel watched me from across his desk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re certain Brian never mentioned you had another name before marriage?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy last name changed. Not my first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd you never met Michael?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe died years before I met Brian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour families didn\u2019t know each other?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot that I know of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel turned the amendment toward himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen the obvious explanation is that Michael meant another Angela.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I knew that.<\/p>\n<p>Yet seeing my name inside a dead man\u2019s final instructions produced a sensation logic could not immediately settle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what we find out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The amendment itself was unusual.<\/p>\n<p>It had been handwritten on Brooks Family Construction stationery three days before Michael died. Harold Bennett had witnessed it along with a nurse at the hospice facility.<\/p>\n<p>The original trust company had accepted it as a supplemental instruction because it did not alter beneficiaries or distributions.<\/p>\n<p>It merely directed the trustee to preserve a sealed envelope with Michael\u2019s personal records.<\/p>\n<p>That envelope was referenced by number.<\/p>\n<p>No one had yet located it.<\/p>\n<p>Harold Bennett remembered the amendment.<\/p>\n<p>He did not remember Angela.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was eighty percent paperwork and twenty percent panic by then,\u201d he told us over video. \u201cMichael was deteriorating quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid he explain who Angela was?\u201d Daniel asked.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett shook his head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said she deserved an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Patricia know about the amendment?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t believe so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she know about the envelope?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Again Bennett hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe knew Michael was leaving instructions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat isn\u2019t the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Michael hide things from her?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennett looked tired.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the end, they hid almost everything from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the call, Daniel requested the trust company\u2019s archived inventory.<\/p>\n<p>The company had merged twice since Michael\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>Records were stored in three states.<\/p>\n<p>What sounded like a simple search became a bureaucratic maze.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel handled the uncertainty better than Brian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis family apparently can\u2019t leave anything in a normal envelope,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Brian almost smiled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNormal would\u2019ve killed them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We were sitting in Daniel\u2019s conference room.<\/p>\n<p>It was the first time I had seen Brian and Rachel joke with each other.<\/p>\n<p>Their resemblance was becoming easier to notice.<\/p>\n<p>Not dramatically.<\/p>\n<p>A gesture here.<\/p>\n<p>A certain tilt of the head.<\/p>\n<p>The way both pressed their lips together when trying not to laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Michael existed in both of them in small unconscious pieces.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel turned toward me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you have any Angelas in your family?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mother had a cousin named Angie, but that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCould Michael have known her?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHighly unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brian frowned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was her last name?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoreno.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His face changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDad knew a Moreno.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stared at him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOld company name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat company?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoreno Electrical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel immediately began searching the records already collected from Brooks Family Construction.<\/p>\n<p>The name appeared repeatedly.<\/p>\n<p>Moreno Electrical had subcontracted for Michael and Matthew for nearly ten years.<\/p>\n<p>Owner: Carlos Moreno.<\/p>\n<p>Bookkeeper: Angela Moreno.<\/p>\n<p>I felt a strange pressure behind my ribs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mother\u2019s cousin was Angela Moreno.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone looked at me.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel spoke first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou said your mother had a cousin named Angie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas she a bookkeeper?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I called my mother from Daniel\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>She answered cheerfully.<\/p>\n<p>Her tone changed when I asked about Angela Moreno.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy are you asking about Angie?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she work for Moreno Electrical?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A pause.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she know Michael Brooks?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Silence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere did you hear that name?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My hand tightened around the phone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo she did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t thought about those people in years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Angie know Michael?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe worked with his company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat isn\u2019t what I asked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My mother sighed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngela, what is happening?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I looked at Brian.<\/p>\n<p>He was watching me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael left a document before he died. It mentions an Angela.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My mother said nothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you know something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another silence.<\/p>\n<p>Then she said, \u201cCome over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My parents lived less than twenty minutes away.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel wanted to accompany me.<\/p>\n<p>I declined.<\/p>\n<p>Brian offered.<\/p>\n<p>I declined that too.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever my mother knew, I wanted to hear it without lawyers or Brookses in the room.<\/p>\n<p>She was waiting at the kitchen table.<\/p>\n<p>My father sat beside her.<\/p>\n<p>That frightened me.<\/p>\n<p>My father normally escaped serious family conversations by finding something urgent to repair in the garage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>Mom folded her hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngie died twelve years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe never married.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you don\u2019t know is that she had a relationship with Michael Brooks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The room went very quiet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore you were born.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My pulse stumbled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore I was born?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mom looked at Dad.<\/p>\n<p>He stared at the table.<\/p>\n<p>A horrible thought arrived before either of them spoke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My mother\u2019s eyes filled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, sweetheart. Michael Brooks was not your father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fact that she knew exactly what I had feared did not comfort me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen why are you telling me this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Angie wasn\u2019t just my cousin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I waited.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was my half-sister.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stared at her.<\/p>\n<p>That was new.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy grandmother had a daughter before she married Grandpa?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy did nobody tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Grandma was sixteen when Angie was born. Her parents raised Angie as a niece. Families did things differently then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apparently every family in my life had discovered the same disastrous method of handling difficult truths.<\/p>\n<p>Hide them.<\/p>\n<p>Rename them.<\/p>\n<p>Wait for the next generation to find the wreckage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does this have to do with Michael?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My mother wiped beneath one eye.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngie worked for Moreno Electrical. She handled invoices with Brooks Construction. She and Michael became close.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn affair?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore Elaine?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYears before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow serious?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSerious enough that Michael once talked about leaving Patricia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brian had spent months discovering his father\u2019s hidden life.<\/p>\n<p>Now another piece of it had reached into mine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Patricia know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEventually.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course she did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael ended it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngie never told me everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mom looked toward the window.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe said Patricia had found something out and threatened to destroy Carlos\u2019s company if Angie didn\u2019t stay away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did she find out?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Angie have a child?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My mother looked back sharply.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you sure?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen what truth was Michael apologizing for?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad finally spoke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I turned toward him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat money?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour aunt left some.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe wasn\u2019t my aunt according to everyone until five minutes ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dad winced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Angie died, your mother received a small inheritance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe told you it came from your grandmother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt didn\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I stared at my parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwenty-four thousand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I remembered the money.<\/p>\n<p>They had used part of it to help me through nursing school.<\/p>\n<p>My mother reached across the table.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAngie wanted some of it used for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe loved you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI barely knew her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe knew you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sentence unsettled me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe kept up with you. School. Graduation. Nursing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mom looked down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always thought it was because you were my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I drove home with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel called before I reached the driveway.<\/p>\n<p>The trust company had located the sealed envelope.<\/p>\n<p>It could not simply be handed over.<\/p>\n<p>The trustee required confirmation that the conditions for release had been met.<\/p>\n<p>The envelope\u2019s instruction stated:<\/p>\n<p>Release upon biological confirmation concerning E.P.\u2019s child, or upon the death of Patricia Brooks, whichever occurs first.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel\u2019s DNA results satisfied the first condition.<\/p>\n<p>The envelope would be released to Rachel as beneficiary.<\/p>\n<p>She asked Brian and me to be present when it was opened.<\/p>\n<p>Two days later we sat in a private room at the trust company.<\/p>\n<p>The envelope was thick.<\/p>\n<p>Yellowed.<\/p>\n<p>Michael\u2019s handwriting appeared across the front.<\/p>\n<p>For Rachel, if the truth ever finds her.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel stared at it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if I can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brian said, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She looked at him.<\/p>\n<p>Then opened it.<\/p>\n<p>Inside were several pages.<\/p>\n<p>A photograph.<\/p>\n<p>A smaller envelope.<\/p>\n<p>And a letter.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel read silently first.<\/p>\n<p>Her face changed several times.<\/p>\n<p>Then she handed the pages to Brian.<\/p>\n<p>Michael had written the letter shortly before his death.<\/p>\n<p>He admitted the affair with Elaine.<\/p>\n<p>He admitted uncertainty over Rachel\u2019s paternity.<\/p>\n<p>He admitted allowing Patricia to influence the adoption because he was afraid of losing Brian and the company.<\/p>\n<p>There was no heroic version of him in the letter.<\/p>\n<p>That mattered.<\/p>\n<p>He described himself as cowardly.<\/p>\n<p>He said he had failed Elaine.<\/p>\n<p>Failed Rachel.<\/p>\n<p>Failed Patricia in a different way.<\/p>\n<p>Then he mentioned Angela Moreno.<\/p>\n<p>Years earlier, Michael wrote, Angela had discovered Patricia was diverting company funds.<\/p>\n<p>Not stealing for herself.<\/p>\n<p>Moving them.<\/p>\n<p>Creating hidden accounts.<\/p>\n<p>At first Angela believed Patricia was protecting assets from business creditors.<\/p>\n<p>Then she discovered one account funded payments to private investigators and attorneys.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia had been monitoring Michael long before Elaine entered the picture.<\/p>\n<p>The marriage had already become a system of surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Angela Moreno threatened to tell Michael.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia threatened Moreno Electrical in return.<\/p>\n<p>Michael eventually learned enough to confront Patricia.<\/p>\n<p>But by then Angela had ended the relationship and left the company.<\/p>\n<p>He never apologized.<\/p>\n<p>The photograph showed Michael and Angela Moreno standing beside a construction trailer.<\/p>\n<p>I recognized her faintly.<\/p>\n<p>A younger version of the woman I remembered from childhood holidays.<\/p>\n<p>Brian read the final paragraph aloud.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Angela ever learns that I finally understood what Patricia did, tell her I am sorry I let fear make silence seem like kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My throat tightened.<\/p>\n<p>The Angela in the amendment was not me.<\/p>\n<p>But the sentence felt painfully familiar.<\/p>\n<p>Fear making silence seem like kindness.<\/p>\n<p>Michael had done it.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew had done it.<\/p>\n<p>Elaine had done it.<\/p>\n<p>Brian had done it.<\/p>\n<p>Even my mother had done it with Angela Moreno\u2019s place in our family.<\/p>\n<p>Different secrets.<\/p>\n<p>Same excuse.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel opened the smaller envelope.<\/p>\n<p>Inside was a copy of an old bank ledger.<\/p>\n<p>Several account numbers had been circled.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel examined them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese aren\u2019t trust accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat are they?\u201d Brian asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLooks like company reserve accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael\u2019s letter explained.<\/p>\n<p>Before his death, he discovered Patricia had maintained a hidden emergency fund.<\/p>\n<p>He believed it contained approximately seventy thousand dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Money originally diverted from Brooks Family Construction.<\/p>\n<p>He demanded she restore it.<\/p>\n<p>She claimed she had.<\/p>\n<p>Michael never confirmed that.<\/p>\n<p>The account numbers were old.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel sent them to his investigator.<\/p>\n<p>Most were closed.<\/p>\n<p>One had been transferred repeatedly through successor institutions.<\/p>\n<p>A modern descendant account still existed.<\/p>\n<p>The owner was Patricia Brooks.<\/p>\n<p>Balance:<\/p>\n<p>$73,418.<\/p>\n<p>I stared at the number.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia had been sitting on more than seventy thousand dollars of hidden money while stealing sixty-one thousand from Brian and me.<\/p>\n<p>The motive changed again.<\/p>\n<p>She had not needed our money because she was broke.<\/p>\n<p>She had refused to touch the older account.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d Rachel asked.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel studied the ledger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe because withdrawing from it would expose where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The account represented old company money.<\/p>\n<p>Potentially stolen or improperly diverted.<\/p>\n<p>Using it could reopen decades of financial questions.<\/p>\n<p>So Patricia stole clean money from us instead.<\/p>\n<p>Money she could blame on me.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel forwarded the discovery to Detective Ortiz and the prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p>It would affect restitution.<\/p>\n<p>Possibly sentencing.<\/p>\n<p>Then Brian noticed something.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at the dates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hidden account had received one recent deposit.<\/p>\n<p>Four thousand dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Two months before our savings disappeared.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<\/p>\n<p>M. Brooks.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew.<\/p>\n<p>We called him.<\/p>\n<p>His attorney joined.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew admitted sending the money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatricia said it was for Elaine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy send it to this account?\u201d Daniel asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe gave me the routing information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you know where the account came from?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Michael ever accuse Patricia of hiding company money?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matthew\u2019s face tightened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brian stared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou knew?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew there was an argument.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou knew enough to send money into the same account twenty years later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t know it was the same account.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you ever ask?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brian laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one in this family ever asks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matthew had no answer.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecutor moved to freeze the account.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia\u2019s attorney fought it.<\/p>\n<p>The court froze it anyway.<\/p>\n<p>With the recovered cash, Elaine\u2019s returned funds, bank reimbursement and Patricia\u2019s hidden account, the sixty-one thousand dollars could finally be restored completely.<\/p>\n<p>Financially, the theft was almost resolved.<\/p>\n<p>Emotionally, it had rearranged several families.<\/p>\n<p>My mother called that night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI should have told you about Angie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it didn\u2019t matter anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what everyone keeps saying about secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was quiet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I believed her.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Patricia, my mother had not hidden the truth to control my choices.<\/p>\n<p>But silence still had consequences.<\/p>\n<p>I asked for photographs of Angie.<\/p>\n<p>Mom brought me a box the next day.<\/p>\n<p>One picture showed Angie holding me when I was six months old.<\/p>\n<p>Another showed her at my high-school graduation, standing at the edge of the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>I had forgotten she was there.<\/p>\n<p>On the back, in her handwriting:<\/p>\n<p>Angela has more courage than I ever did. I hope she keeps it.<\/p>\n<p>I sat on the floor with the photograph in my hand for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>Angie had no idea what my life would become.<\/p>\n<p>She could not have known I would marry Michael Brooks\u2019s son.<\/p>\n<p>She could not have known Patricia would one day steal my identity.<\/p>\n<p>But she had known Patricia.<\/p>\n<p>She had survived her own version of the same machinery.<\/p>\n<p>And unlike me, she had never received public vindication.<\/p>\n<p>The next morning Daniel called.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia\u2019s attorney had filed a motion.<\/p>\n<p>She wanted sentencing delayed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe claims the newly discovered account proves the stolen money was never intended for personal enrichment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI agree.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is she saying?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat she planned to reimburse Brian after the divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe admitted the plan?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you not exactly admit that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel sighed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s trying to reframe motive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course.<\/p>\n<p>Even convicted, Patricia was still editing the story.<\/p>\n<p>But the hidden account had created a problem she could not edit away.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecutor discovered something else inside its transaction history.<\/p>\n<p>Three years earlier, Patricia had paid a private investigator from that account.<\/p>\n<p>The investigator\u2019s assignment name appeared in the memo field.<\/p>\n<p>A. B.<\/p>\n<p>Angela Brooks.<\/p>\n<p>Me.<\/p>\n<p>Patricia had begun investigating me three years before Rachel ever contacted Brian.<\/p>\n<p>Long before the missing money.<\/p>\n<p>Long before she claimed to suspect I might leave him.<\/p>\n<p>I stared at the transaction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy was she investigating me then?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel\u2019s expression was grim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is the next question.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/?p=9879\">Click here to continue reading: PART 14: Patricia Had Hired an Investigator to Follow Me Years Before Rachel Appeared, and His Archived Report Explained Why She Never Trusted Our Marriage<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read the sentence for the fourth time. If Angela ever learns the truth, tell her I am sorry. The handwriting was shaky, nothing like the confident signature on Michael &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9898,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9878\/revisions\/9898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}