My New Husband Kicked My “Poor” Janitor Father Out Of Our Wedding For Being A Total Embarrassment. He Had No Idea My Dad Secretly Owns The $62 Million Real Estate Empire He Works For. Now, I Just Found A Hidden Life Insurance Policy On Myself And A Suitcase Full Of Someone Else’s Ids.
The Ghost of Daniel Krueger
Twenty minutes later, I was back in his office, and Marcus was sliding a thick folder across his desk. His face was grim.
“Your instincts were right,”
he said.
“Derek Lawson isn’t who he says he is.”
I opened the folder. The first page was a photograph—a mug shot from 12 years ago. The face was younger, the hair was different, but it was unmistakably Derek. Except the name under the photo wasn’t Derek Lawson. It was Daniel Krueger.
“Who is Daniel Krueger?”
I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
Marcus leaned back.
“Daniel Krueger was a small-time con artist out of Miami. Identity theft, credit card fraud, a couple of romance scams. Nothing violent but persistent. He got arrested in Hialeah, did 18 months, then disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Disappeared. Changed his name, his face, everything. Plastic surgery, new identity, new social security number, the whole nine yards.”
Marcus pointed to the folder.
“Derek Lawson was born 3 years after Daniel Krueger went to prison. The real Derek Lawson was a kid who died in a car accident in Oregon. Our friend bought his identity off the black market.”
I felt sick. My daughter had married a ghost.
“There’s more,”
Marcus said.
“His investment firm, Lawson Capital Partners? I had a forensic accountant take a look at the public filings. It’s a Ponzi scheme, Harry. Classic structure. He’s been taking money from new investors to pay off old investors. The whole thing is held together with duct tape and lies.”
“How much are we talking about?”
Marcus paused.
“$47 million.”
The number hung in the air between us.
“And Rachel?”
I asked.
“Does she know?”
“I don’t think so. But here’s the thing, Harry.”
Marcus leaned forward, his voice dropping.
“I pulled his marriage records. Rachel is his fourth wife. Fourth. The first three all had the same story: successful professional women, financially comfortable, no close family. He’d marry them, charm them into merging their finances, then drain their accounts and disappear. One of them, a woman named Patricia Holden in Arizona, she committed suicide 6 months after he left her with nothing.”
A Father’s Wrath
I closed my eyes. I thought about Rachel smiling at me across the dance floor. I thought about Derek’s cold eyes, his perfect smile, his words: “You’ve served your purpose, old man.”
“He didn’t marry Rachel for her money,”
I said slowly, the pieces clicking into place.
“She doesn’t have any. So why did he marry her?”
Marcus nodded.
“That’s what I couldn’t figure out at first. Then I dug deeper into his financials. His Ponzi scheme is collapsing. He’s got investors asking questions, threatening lawsuits. He’s desperate, and desperate men do desperate things.”
He slid another document across the desk. It was a life insurance policy. Rachel’s name was at the top. The policy was for $2 million.
“The beneficiary was Derek Lawson. He took this out on her 3 months ago,”
Marcus said quietly.
“The wedding was the legitimacy. Now he’s just waiting.”
I stared at the policy. $2 million. My daughter’s life reduced to a number on a page.
“There’s one more thing,”
Marcus said.
He reached into the folder and pulled out a photograph. It showed Derek, or Daniel, whoever he was, getting into a car with a woman who was definitely not my daughter. The timestamp was 2 weeks before the wedding.
“Her name is Vanessa Cole,”
Marcus said.
“She’s his real girlfriend, has been for years. She moves with him from city to city, helps him run the cons. They have a place together in Atlanta under a fake name.”
I put the photograph down. My hands weren’t shaking anymore. The grief and horror had crystallized into something harder, something colder.
“What do you want to do, Harry?”
Marcus asked.
I looked at him.
“I want to destroy him. But I want to do it right. I want evidence that will hold up in court. I want to protect my daughter and make sure he never hurts anyone else again.”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“That’s going to take resources. Legal counsel, forensic accountants, surveillance. It’s going to be expensive.”
