Chapter 4

Stepping out of the ATM booth, I shivered as the night wind hit me.

I wasn't afraid anymore. Instead, I felt a cold, bone-chilling clarity I'd never known before.

They thought I was only an old, senile widow they could push around. They were dead wrong.

I spent my whole life as an accountant.

My specialty was sifting through tangled webs of numbers and paperwork to uncover the truth and making the book-cookers pay the price.

It was Ethan and Jenny who started this war.

I walked slowly toward home, my steps steady and unwavering.

In my mind, a strategy was already taking shape at lightning speed.

Step one was already done: I'd gotten my hands on the core evidence and made sure it was safe.

Step two would start tomorrow. I was going to dig deep and find out exactly how that 1.7 million got racked up, and where every penny went.

I didn't sleep a wink all night.

The ceiling loomed above me in the darkness, like a silent, gaping maw, ready to swallow me whole at any moment.

But sleep never came to me.

I needed to calm down. The deeper I got into this mess, the clearer my mind had to be.

I got up and turned on my computer.

It was an old model that Jenny handed down to me before I retired. It ran a bit slow, but it was good enough for me.

I needed an entry point, a way to get a look inside Ethan's finances.

That credit card was the key.

I carefully took out the card and set it under the desk lamp.

The bank's name was printed on the card: Confluence Bank.

It was a bank I hardly ever used.

Smaller commercial banks like this usually offered special high-limit credit cards to attract customers, often based on the customer's job or employer credentials.

That might explain how Ethan, a regular office worker, was able to score a 1.7 million credit line.

I pulled up my browser and looked up the bank's official website.

The website had a sleek, modern design.

I found the online banking login page.

The username was usually either one's ID or one's card number.

I typed in the long string of numbers from the card. Next up was the password.

Ethan's insincere voice echoed in my mind. "The password is your birthday."

Did he use my birthday as the password so I'd let my guard down?

Was he trying to play the whole "we're family" card, hoping I'd feel safe and step right into his trap?

Pathetic.

I entered my birthdate in four digits and clicked "Login."

The page redirected, and the login was successful.

I was inside the online banking portal for this card.

My heart started pounding.

An entire record of Ethan's shady dealings was about to unfold right in front of me.

I found the "Account Details" and "Transaction History" options and clicked in.

A long list of transactions filled the screen before my eyes.

I started examining the transactions, beginning with the very first one.

The card had been opened three months ago, and the initial credit limit was already 1.7 million.

The card had been approved under the classification "Co-branded Corporate Executive Credit Card."

Corporate executive? Which company did Ethan supposedly run?

From what I remembered, he was only a department manager at some mid-sized logistics firm. Nothing fancy.

His monthly salary was barely over 3 thousand, average at best. When did he suddenly become an executive?

I clicked open the attachment with the application documents.

It was a printed employment verification on company letterhead, signed by the HR director.

It read: [This letter certifies that Mr. Ethan Green is employed as Associate Director at our company, with an annual salary of 400 thousand.]

The letterhead bore the Expanse Trade logo and a watermark.

Expanse Trade? That name was totally unfamiliar to me.

I quickly plugged it into a company lookup site.

The results popped up almost instantly.

It showed: [Name: Expanse Trade.

[Registered capital: 3 million dollars.

[Founded: Four months ago.

[Legal representative: Ethan Green.

[Company Shareholders: Ethan, holding 90% of shares; Jenny, holding 10%.]

The instant I saw Jenny's name, every drop of blood in me froze solid.

My own daughter was not only aware but also a conspirator from start to finish.