Under pressure, Lucas finally admitted what I had already suspected: Lumina belonged to me. He had never provided the money used to establish the restaurant.
But that wasn’t the only secret coming to light.
The financial records showed that more than $20,000 had been transferred into Beatrice’s personal account. Lucas also admitted that he had accumulated nearly $90,000 in personal debt.
His plan had been to gain control of Lumina, borrow against its value, and use the money to escape his financial problems.
Beatrice had known more than she had let on. She was aware of his secret relationship with another woman and had been pressuring him for money. Meanwhile, funds from my business had been used for expenses neither of them could adequately explain.
I felt sick—not because I was losing money alone, but because the people I had trusted had apparently been treating my life’s work as their personal bank account.
