Chapter 5: David’s Blindness

David answered on the second ring, his voice warm and unsuspecting. “Evie? Everything alright? You sound a little… strained.”

“David, I need to talk to you,” I said, my voice carefully neutral, trying to mask the tremor in it. “It’s important. Can you come over?”

He hesitated. “Is everything okay with the foundation? Nia mentioned you’ve been working hard on the books.”

“It’s about the foundation, yes,” I confirmed, “and it’s something I need to show you in person. Please, David.”

He agreed, a hint of concern entering his tone, promising to be over in half an hour. The wait was excruciating. I paced the living room, rehearsing how to present the evidence, how to soften the blow. But there was no soft way to tell someone their spouse was a thief.

When David arrived, he looked tired, his usual easygoing demeanor replaced by a furrowed brow. He hugged me, a gesture that usually brought comfort, but today felt like a stark reminder of the chasm about to open between us.

“What is it, Evie?” he asked, sitting heavily on the sofa, his eyes searching mine. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I sat across from him, placing the printouts on the coffee table between us: the bank statements with the highlighted “Misc. Project Expenses” transfer, and the registration details for “Williams Enterprises LLC.”

“I’ve been going through the foundation’s accounts,” I began, my voice steady, “and I found some significant discrepancies. With the help of Mrs. Dixon, I tracked a large transfer of eighteen thousand five hundred dollars to an unknown account.”

David frowned, leaning forward to glance at the papers. “An unknown account? That sounds like a mistake, maybe a vendor we haven’t worked with before? You know how quickly things change.”

“It wasn’t a mistake, David,” I countered, my resolve hardening. “That account belongs to a shell company called ‘Williams Enterprises LLC’.”

His gaze flickered from the papers to my face, confusion clouding his features. “Williams? Like… Nia’s maiden name?”

“Exactly,” I said, pushing the LLC registration document towards him. “And this company was registered just months before your father passed, when his health began to decline significantly.”

David picked up the paper, his fingers tracing Nia’s maiden name. His face paled, but then a flicker of defensiveness entered his eyes.

“Evie, what are you implying?” he asked, his voice tightening. “Nia has been nothing but supportive. She’s tried to help you with the books, help the foundation.”

“David, look at the evidence,” I urged, tapping the bank statement. “These transfers, disguised as ‘miscellaneous project expenses,’ are draining the foundation. And they’re going directly into an account linked to Nia. This isn’t just about an innocent business venture. This is theft.”

He dropped the papers as if they burned him. His face was a mixture of shock and anger, but not at Nia. At me.

“Theft?” he scoffed, pushing himself up, beginning to pace the small living room. “This is ridiculous, Evie. Nia wouldn’t do something like this. She loves this community, she loved my father!”

“She also loved his money, apparently,” I retorted, the bitterness escaping before I could reign it in.

David stopped pacing, his eyes blazing. “How dare you! My wife, a thief? This is slander, Evie. You’re grieving, I understand that, but you can’t just make wild accusations like this.”

“The evidence is right here!” I gestured to the papers. “A shell company in her maiden name, created at a suspicious time, receiving funds from the foundation in suspicious ways.”

“It’s a misunderstanding!” David insisted, his voice rising. “Nia has been talking about starting a small consulting business, something she could do from home. She probably just didn’t want to announce it until it was fully off the ground. These are startup costs, maybe. Or a temporary holding account for something legitimate.”

“Eighteen thousand five hundred dollars as ‘startup costs’ from a community foundation, without a single board member’s knowledge, without a transparent paper trail?” I asked incredulously. “Marcus would never allow that. And neither would I.”

“You’re letting your grief twist everything,” David accused, his voice thick with frustration. “You’re seeing conspiracies where there are none. Nia is dedicated to this family, to my father’s legacy. She’s trying to support you, and you’re turning on her.”

“She deliberately let a major grant expire!” I shot back, the anger building. “Brenda told me Nia often ‘misplaced’ financial records, making it harder to track things!”

David shook his head vehemently. “Brenda is old, Evie, sometimes she mixes things up. And the grant… that was an oversight, a clerical error in the chaos after Dad passed. Nia apologized for that, she felt terrible.”

He paused, running a hand through his hair, his eyes pleading. “Please, Evie. Don’t do this. Don’t spread these damaging rumors. Nia is my wife. She’s family. You’re hurting her, you’re hurting me. You’re hurting Dad’s memory by tearing us apart.”

His words, meant to dissuade me, only twisted the knife deeper. He was so completely blind, so unwilling to see the truth that was staring him in the face. His loyalty to Nia, whether out of love or willful ignorance, was absolute.

“I am trying to protect your father’s legacy, David,” I said, my voice now cold, devoid of the hope I’d had when he walked in. “This isn’t about me. This is about what’s right.”

“What’s right is keeping this family together,” David countered, his voice raw. “And you’re doing the opposite. You’re slandering my wife, my family. You need to stop. You need to let this go.”

He picked up the papers again, but this time he simply crumpled them in his hand. “I’ll talk to Nia about this ‘Williams Enterprises’ myself. I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation. But don’t you dare go around accusing her, not without concrete proof beyond some blurry bank statements and a newly registered LLC.”

He turned to leave, his back stiff. “I hope you can see past your anger, Evie. Dad wouldn’t have wanted this kind of strife.”

The door clicked shut, leaving me alone in the silence, the crumpled papers still in David’s hand. My heart ached, not just for the betrayal by Nia, but for David’s inability to accept it. His blind loyalty to his wife had erected an impenetrable wall between us. I had hoped he would be my ally, but he had become another obstacle, another casualty of Nia’s deceit.

The devastation was profound. I had shown him the truth, laid it bare, and he had chosen to believe a comfortable lie. What now? How could I protect Marcus’s foundation if his own son refused to see the danger? The weight of it all pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating. The family peace he so desperately craved was already shattered, but David, it seemed, was determined to rebuild it on a foundation of lies.