Chapter 4
I didn’t sleep.
Not for one minute.
By sunrise, my life no longer felt like my life.
It felt like a room someone else had built around me while I wasn’t looking.
Ryan’s arrest.
The forged deed.
My mother being alive.
Twelve million dollars I didn’t know existed.
And now some plan to make me look mentally incompetent.
Dad made coffee.
I couldn’t drink it.
At 6:17 a.m., his attorney arrived.
Her name was Evelyn Mercer.
She was in her fifties, with gray-streaked hair and the expression of someone who had already decided feelings were less important than evidence.
Dad had called her during the night.
I told her everything.
She took notes without interrupting.
When I finished, she looked at Dad.
“Did you know about the trust?”
“Some of it.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course he did.”
Dad lowered his eyes.
Evelyn ignored the tension.
“Sarah, your mother is right about one thing. If someone is moving assets, timing matters.”
“What do we do?”
“First, we confirm whether the trust still exists and who controls it.”
“I don’t even know its name.”
Dad did.
“The Sarah Fairmont Bennett Irrevocable Family Trust.”
I stared at him.
“You know the full legal name?”
“Yes.”
I turned away.
Evelyn said, “We can deal with your father’s decisions later. Right now we need to protect you.”
She made three calls.
The third one changed everything.
A bank officer confirmed that someone had submitted paperwork two days earlier requesting replacement authority over trust-related accounts.
The paperwork claimed I was experiencing severe psychiatric instability.
My mouth went dry.
“Whose name is on the request?”
Evelyn listened.
Then her expression hardened.
“Ryan Cole?”
She looked at me.
I nodded.
My husband.
The man who had spent years telling me he loved me.
Apparently he had also spent years preparing to take control of everything I owned.
“Can the bank freeze it?” I asked.
“Temporarily.”
“How temporarily?”
“Forty-eight hours without a court order.”
Dad stood.
“Then we get one.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“We will.”
My replacement phone rang.
Unknown number again.
I answered immediately.
“Mom?”
No response.
Then Ryan’s voice came through.
“Still taking calls from strangers?”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“How are you calling me?”
“I posted bond.”
I stared at Evelyn.
She was already signaling for me to keep him talking.
Ryan chuckled.
“You thought one domestic dispute would keep me in jail?”
“You beat me.”
“That’s your version.”
“My injuries are photographed.”
“And I have scratches.”
“You gave them to yourself.”
“Can you prove that?”
I felt sick.
He sounded calm.
Too calm.
“What do you want?”
“My wife.”
“No.”
He sighed.
“Sarah, we had a bad night.”
I almost couldn’t believe him.
“A bad night?”
“You were upset.”
“You hit me with a mop.”
“You were hysterical.”
There it was again.
Hysterical.
Unstable.
Confused.
He wasn’t talking to me.
He was building a record.
I suddenly understood.
“You’re recording this call.”
Silence.
Then he laughed softly.
“Why would that matter unless you plan on saying something crazy?”
Evelyn wrote something on a pad.
DO NOT ENGAGE.
I steadied my breathing.
“I want all communication through attorneys.”
“Your father’s putting ideas in your head.”
“My attorney.”
“You don’t have an attorney.”
“I do now.”
For the first time, he paused.
“Who?”
I looked at Evelyn.
She shook her head.
“I’m ending this call.”
“Wait.”
His voice changed.
The confidence slipped.
“Sarah, don’t trust your father.”
I almost laughed.
“That’s rich coming from you.”
“He’s been lying to you your entire life.”
“That doesn’t make you innocent.”
“You think your mother disappeared because of Victor?”
I stopped breathing.
Evelyn stared at me.
“What did you say?”
Ryan lowered his voice.
“Ask her why she really ran.”
“You talked to my mother.”
“I did more than talk to her.”
My blood turned cold.
“What does that mean?”
“She gave me information.”
“What information?”
“Come home and I’ll tell you.”
“No.”
“Then I guess you’ll never know.”
He ended the call.
I stared at the phone.
Evelyn immediately asked, “Did you record that?”
Dad nodded.
He had used his own phone.
“What did he mean?” I asked.
Dad looked troubled.
“I don’t know.”
“Do not say that unless it’s true.”
“It’s true.”
I believed him.
Barely.
Evelyn stood.
“We need to move.”
The next few hours became a blur.
Police.
Attorneys.
Bank calls.
Court filings.
By early afternoon, Evelyn obtained an emergency temporary restraining order blocking Ryan from accessing property or accounts in my name.
For the first time all day, I breathed.
Then Dad’s doorbell rang.
We all froze.
Dad checked the camera.
A woman stood outside.
She was tall.
Blonde.
Maybe forty.
I didn’t recognize her.
“Who is she?” I asked.
Dad’s face changed.
“Oh, no.”
“What?”
He opened the door before I could stop him.
The woman walked inside carrying a leather folder.
“Thomas.”
“Lauren.”
I looked between them.
“Who is this?”
The woman’s eyes moved to me.
“You must be Sarah.”
“Who are you?”
She held out her hand.
“I’m Lauren Fairmont.”
My stomach dropped.
Fairmont.
“Victor’s daughter,” Dad said quietly.
My cousin.
A woman I had not seen since I was a teenager.
Lauren ignored my hand when I didn’t take hers.
“I heard what happened.”
“From who?”
“Ryan.”
I laughed.
“Of course.”
She placed the folder on the table.
“I’m not here to defend him.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To warn you.”
I was getting tired of warnings.
“About what?”
Lauren opened the folder.
Inside were printed emails.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
One photograph made me stop.
Ryan was sitting at a restaurant table.
Across from him was Lauren.
The timestamp was from three years earlier.
Before our wedding anniversary.
I stared at her.
“You knew my husband?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I introduced him to your mother.”
My hand tightened around the edge of the table.
Dad swore under his breath.
Lauren continued.
“Ryan didn’t randomly become involved in this family.”
I looked at her.
“Then how did he?”
“He came looking for us.”
“Why?”
“Because his father used to work for Fairmont.”
I blinked.
Ryan had told me his father was an accountant who died when Ryan was twelve.
That was apparently another lie.
“Doing what?”
Lauren gave me a sad look.
“Cleaning up financial problems.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“What kind?”
“The criminal kind.”
Lauren slid another photograph toward me.
It showed Ryan at maybe seventeen.
Beside him stood a man who looked almost exactly like him.
And beside that man stood my uncle Victor.
My mouth went dry.
“His father knew Victor.”
“Very well.”
“How well?”
Lauren hesitated.
Then answered.
“Well enough to go to prison for him.”
I looked at Dad.
He seemed genuinely shocked.
Lauren said Ryan’s father, Michael Cole, had been convicted of embezzlement more than twenty years earlier.
He served six years.
According to Lauren, Michael had always insisted he was taking the blame for someone else.
Victor.
“Ryan grew up believing your family destroyed his father,” Lauren said.
“My family?”
“The Fairmonts.”
“I barely knew any of them.”
“That doesn’t matter to Ryan.”
I felt sick.
“So this was revenge?”
“Partly.”
“What’s the other part?”
“Twelve million dollars.”
Of course.
Money.
There was always money.
Lauren pushed the folder closer.
“I believe Ryan married you because Victor told him where the trust was hidden.”
Dad stood.
“Victor is behind this?”
Lauren looked at him.
“My father is behind almost everything.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
She ignored the insult.
“I haven’t spoken to him in eighteen months.”
“Why should we believe you?” I asked.
Lauren met my eyes.
“You shouldn’t.”
That answer surprised me.
She pointed to the folder.
“Believe the evidence.”
I looked through it.
Emails between Ryan and an address identified only as VF.
Statements showing payments to a consulting company Ryan secretly owned.
Property records.
And one scanned letter.
My mother’s handwriting was on it.
Ryan,
I made a terrible mistake trusting you. Do not contact Sarah again. If you touch one dollar belonging to my daughter, I will expose everything.
I read it twice.
Then I noticed the date.
Four months ago.
My mother had known.
She knew Ryan was dangerous.
And she still hadn’t called me.
Anger rose inside me so fast I felt dizzy.
“Where is she?”
Lauren looked at me.
“Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know.”
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
“I truly don’t.”
I closed the folder.
“Then why are you here?”
Lauren looked toward the window.
“Because Ryan isn’t the person you should be most afraid of.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He beat me until I couldn’t stand.”
“I know.”
“Then who is worse?”
She looked back at me.
“My father.”
Dad’s face hardened.
“What is Victor planning?”
Lauren took a breath.
“He knows Sarah’s trust is frozen.”
“How?”
“Because someone at the bank called him.”
Evelyn immediately picked up her phone.
Lauren raised a hand.
“There’s more.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Victor doesn’t need the trust anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“He found another way to get the money.”
My stomach tightened.
“How?”
May you like
Lauren’s expression filled with fear.
“He needs Sarah dead.”
