“Among other things.”
“I should have said something earlier. The way he was talking to you all night, it was out of line. I just didn’t want to make a scene.”
“Neither did I,” I said. “And then I realized making a scene was the only responsible option.”
Evan nodded slowly.
“Listen, if Paige needs a lawyer at any point, if this guy tries to come back around, or if there’s anything financial she’s been involved in, have her call me. I’ll handle it.”
That meant more to me than he probably knew.
My brother and I aren’t the type to get emotional with each other.
But that moment in the kitchen felt like something shifted between us.
Like he finally saw me as someone who could hold his own, not just the little brother tagging along.
Karen and I drove home that night, mostly in silence.
About halfway through the drive, she said, “You were incredible tonight.”
I said, “I was terrified.”
She laughed.
“You didn’t look terrified. You looked like a guy who knew exactly what he was doing.”
“I was terrified, and I knew exactly what I was doing. Both things can be true.”
She reached over and held my hand on the center console.
That’s one of the things I love about Karen.
She doesn’t need to give a speech.
She just shows up.
The next few days were rough.
Paige didn’t talk to me.
Not immediately.
I’d expected that.
Even when you’re the one delivering the truth, you can still be the person someone’s angry at for delivering it.
She needed time, and I gave it to her.
What I did do was dig deeper.
Not because I was trying to build a case against Graham.
Because I needed to make sure my sister wasn’t in any legal or financial danger.
I called a buddy of mine from the firm, a guy named Trent, who’d worked the original Prescott Capital investigation with me.
I told him what happened.
Trent pulled up the old files and confirmed what I already suspected.
The investigation had led to a settlement.
Graham hadn’t been criminally charged, but the state securities board had revoked his registration.
He was barred from managing client funds in Virginia.
The settlement included restitution payments to affected clients, most of which, according to follow-up records, he had not fully paid.
In other words, Graham wasn’t just a guy with a messy business past.
He was a guy who had been professionally and legally sanctioned for what he did.
And instead of owning it, he’d reinvented himself.
New city.
New wardrobe.
New personality.
Same con artist underneath.
I put together a clean summary of the facts, dates, filings, the business journal article, the state board ruling.
I didn’t editorialize.
I didn’t add commentary.
I just laid out the paper trail in a folder and waited.
Paige called me on a Saturday morning, 9 days after Thanksgiving.
I was at the hardware store picking up a new deadbolt for Karen’s apartment because her landlord kept getting around to it.
My phone buzzed, and I saw Paige’s name on the screen.
I stepped outside to take it.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”
Long pause.
“Then I broke up with him officially 3 days ago.”
I didn’t say anything right away.
I just let her talk.
“He tried to explain everything. Kept calling me, texting me, sending me these long messages about how the media had it wrong, how his partners had thrown him under the bus. And for about a day, I almost believed him because he’s really, really good at sounding believable.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s how guys like him operate.”
“But then I started looking things up myself. The article you showed me, the state board records. I even found a Reddit thread where former clients were sharing their stories. Zach, these were normal people. Teachers, retirees, a single mom who’d put her kids’ college fund with him. They lost everything.”
Her voice broke on that last word.
I leaned against the wall of the hardware store and closed my eyes.
“I’m sorry, Paige.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re the reason I found out. If you hadn’t said anything, I’d still be with him. I was already talking about moving in with him next spring. He’d started asking me about my savings, my investments. He wanted to help me optimize my portfolio.”