He wore a gray sport coat that seemed uncomfortable across his shoulders.
His hair had been cut short.
He looked older than I remembered.
I sat beside Dina at the conference table.
Tommy’s attorney attended as well.
A court reporter prepared the record.
Dina began with ordinary questions.
Donnie’s business history.
His employees.
The services Savage Lawn and Snow provided.
His commercial clients.
His procedures for issuing invoices.
Then she placed the fourteen payments in front of him.
He looked down.
“Do you recognize these?”
“Yes.”
“Did your company receive them?”
“Yes.”
“Did you provide services corresponding to the invoices?”
He hesitated.
“Some work was discussed.”
Dina nodded.
“What work?”
He looked toward his attorney.
Then back at her.
“Property maintenance.”
Dina turned a page.
“Can you identify the properties?”
Silence.
“Do you have route records?”
“No.”
“Service agreements?”
“Not for those dates.”
She placed another document on the table.
It contained archived weather observations and business records for the dates in question.
Dina looked at Donnie.
“Your company invoiced Coutts Concrete for snow removal in July.”
He stared at the page.
“Yes.”
“Did your employees remove snow from any Coutts Concrete property that month?”
A long silence followed.
I could hear the heating system humming above us.
Donnie looked at me.
For a moment, I remembered him running behind my bicycle.
His hand steadying the seat.
His voice telling me to keep pedaling.
Then he lowered his eyes.
“No.”
Dina waited.
He took a breath.
“No, we didn’t remove snow in July.”
She turned to another invoice.
“And this one?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“And the remaining invoices?”
His shoulders sagged.
“Those weren’t real service invoices.”
The room became very quiet.
Dina continued carefully.
“Then why were they issued?”
Donnie stared at his hands.
Then he began explaining.
Tommy had approached him when the business was struggling.
He offered a thirty-thousand-dollar personal loan.
Later, when Tommy began discussing the divorce, he suggested using Savage Lawn and Snow to process business expenses that wouldn’t attract attention as easily as personal withdrawals.
Donnie would send invoices.
Coutts Concrete would pay them.
Donnie would withdraw most of the money and return it to Tommy.
He could keep fifteen percent.
In exchange, Tommy would forgive the outstanding personal loan.
I stared at my brother.
He continued.
“I told myself it was temporary.”
Dina waited.
He looked toward the table.
“Tommy said it was his company money. He said the divorce paperwork would be simpler if it didn’t show up in the accounts.”
I felt something tighten inside my chest.
Dina asked whether he’d returned the cash.
Donnie nodded.
“Most of it.”
“How much?”
“Thirty-nine thousand one hundred dollars.”
“And you kept six thousand nine hundred?”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Dina asked where the transfers had been made.
Donnie described meeting Tommy in public parking lots and handing over envelopes.
His voice was quiet.
Then she asked the question I had been dreading.
“Mr. Savage, did you understand that this arrangement could affect the financial information provided in your sister’s divorce?”
Donnie looked at me.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
Then he said, “I think I knew.”
His eyes filled.
“I just didn’t want to think about what it meant.”
He lowered his head.
“I’m sorry, Tracy.”
I couldn’t answer.
The deposition continued.
Dina needed dates.
Amounts.
Documents.
Details that could be verified against bank records.
My brother answered.
He stopped trying to defend the invoices.
He acknowledged the missing service records.
He confirmed the loan arrangement.
And he admitted that he’d accepted money he had no legitimate basis to keep.
When it was over, Donnie remained seated while the attorneys gathered their papers.
Then he looked toward me.
“Trace…”
I stood.
For a moment, I wanted to ask how he could have done it.
I wanted to remind him of every time he’d promised to look after me.
But I was exhausted.
And I didn’t trust myself to say something useful.
So I looked at him and answered quietly.
“You should have told me.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
Then I left.
Two days later, Tommy’s attorney contacted Dina about settlement discussions.
The new records changed the financial picture.
The business had not been operating exactly as Tommy had represented.
The disputed transfers had reduced the money shown in the company accounts.
The false expense descriptions had distorted the financial disclosures.
And the original settlement proposal had been based on figures that could no longer be accepted without correction.
Dina arranged for an independent accountant to review the business records.
The review identified additional adjustments and clarified which debts belonged to the business, which were personal, and which expenses needed further documentation.
It didn’t transform Coutts Concrete into a thriving company overnight.