Chapter 5
I replayed the sentence three times.
You already did when you married her for that property.
My hands went numb.
Eleven years.
Eleven birthdays.
Eleven Christmas mornings.
The little courthouse wedding because we couldn’t afford anything bigger.
The first apartment with the broken dishwasher.
The night Dad died and Ryan held me on the kitchen floor until sunrise.
Had all of it been planned?
I wanted to throw the laptop across the room.
Instead I called Detective Ramirez.
He told me not to touch anything else.
Twenty-five minutes later, two officers arrived.
By then the medical transport had taken Ryan away.
He had not spoken to me as they loaded him into the van.
He only stared.
That stare stayed with me.
Ramirez arrived after midnight.
He listened to the files through the laptop speakers.
When Marlene’s voice said the sentence, he looked at me.
“Did you know your husband before your father purchased the lake property?”
“No.”
“When did your father buy it?”
“About thirteen years ago.”
“And when did you meet Ryan?”
“Twelve.”
He wrote it down.
“How?”
“At a fundraiser for my father’s company.”
“Was Ryan invited?”
“I don’t know.”
I had never thought about it.
Ryan told me he came with a friend.
A man named Derek.
I couldn’t even remember Derek’s last name.
Ramirez bagged the laptop.
“Someone from financial crimes will contact you.”
“What about Marlene?”
“She’s still being interviewed.”
“Did she take the flash drive?”
“I can’t discuss that.”
“That means yes.”
“It means I can’t discuss it.”
He started toward the door.
I stopped him.
“Detective.”
He turned.
“If Ryan married me because of the lake house, does that matter?”
“In a criminal investigation?”
“Yes.”
“It could.”
“In my life?”
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
After he left, I sat on the kitchen floor until the sun came up.
At seven, my mother called.
I let it ring.
At seven-ten, Emma called from the hospital.
I answered immediately.
“Hey.”
“You found something.”
I smiled weakly.
“How do you know?”
“Detective Ramirez came back.”
I told her about the recordings.
She went silent.
Then she said, “Sarah, I’m so sorry.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did Mom?”
“I don’t think so.”
I looked at the empty chair across from me.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“You believe evidence.”
“When did you become the smart sister?”
“When I got thrown down an embankment.”
I laughed before I could stop myself.
Then I cried.
Emma cried too.
For a minute we just listened to each other breathe.
“I’m going to get you out of this,” she whispered.
“You’re the one in the hospital.”
“Details.”
There was my sister.
Still there beneath the bruises.
After we hung up, someone knocked.
I almost didn’t answer.
It was Jessica.
She looked nothing like the woman I had seen beside Ryan’s hospital bed.
Her blond hair was hidden beneath a baseball cap.
No makeup.
Dark circles under her eyes.
She carried a large envelope.
I kept the chain on the door.
“You’ve got thirty seconds.”
“I need to talk to you.”
“No.”
“Ryan is lying.”
“Not shocking.”
“About the accident.”
“Also not shocking.”
She glanced toward the street.
“Can I come inside?”
I laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
“Sarah, please.”
“You slept with my husband.”
“I know.”
“You helped forge documents to steal my property.”
Her face changed.
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“Ryan did it alone?”
“No.”
She looked around again.
Then lowered her voice.
“Marlene did.”
I stopped smiling.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
I thought about the recording.
Marlene warning Ryan.
You already did when you married her for that property.
That sounded like someone who knew far more than she admitted.
“What’s in the envelope?”
“Proof.”
“Slide it through.”
“Not unless you promise you’ll listen.”
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
Jessica clenched her jaw.
Then she pushed the envelope through the narrow gap.
I shut the door.
Inside were bank statements.
Copies of emails.
Photographs of documents.
One email was from Marlene to Ryan seven years earlier.
The subject line read:
LAKE HOUSE.
I read the message.
The world seemed to narrow around me.
Your father was right. Richard Bennett’s property is going to be worth a fortune one day. Stay patient. Sarah trusts you completely.
I opened the door again.
Jessica stood exactly where I left her.
“Where did you get this?”
“Ryan’s cloud account.”
“You had his password.”
“Yes.”
“Of course you did.”
She ignored that.
“Marlene knew before you ever married him.”
My stomach turned.
“You said Ryan is lying about the accident.”
“He is.”
“Emma says you tried to drive off the road.”
Jessica’s face broke.
“I was angry.”
“That’s not a defense.”
“I threatened them.”
“You said if you went down, everyone went down.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I jerked the wheel.”
“So you admit it.”
“I admit I lost control for a second.”
“A second nearly killed my sister.”
“I know.”
“You nearly killed all three of you.”
“I know.”
She covered her mouth.
I felt no sympathy.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
“But I corrected,” she said.
“Emma said that.”
“Ryan grabbed the wheel.”
“She said that too.”
Jessica looked at me.
“Do you know why?”
“To destroy evidence.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because of the insurance policy.”
I frowned.
“What insurance policy?”
Jessica’s face went pale.
“He took it out on me two months before the accident.”
My mind went blank.
“How much?”
“One million dollars.”
I gripped the door.
“Why would Ryan have a policy on you?”
“He was listed as my domestic partner.”
“You two lived together for five months.”
“I know.”
“And an insurance company approved a million-dollar policy?”
“My family has money.”
That was new.
“What does your family have to do with it?”
Jessica looked ashamed.
“My father owns the company buying your lake house.”
I stared at her.
The pieces rearranged themselves.
Not an affair that became a financial scheme.
A financial scheme that became an affair.
“Your father knew?”
“No.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“He knows about the property. He does not know about the forged papers.”
“Then why was Ryan trying to steal it?”
“Because my father refused to deal with him.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Ryan wanted a percentage of the resort project.”
“For what?”
“Delivering the property.”
I almost smiled at the absurdity.
“I wasn’t selling.”
“That’s why he needed control.”
“And you helped.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
“I thought you were going to receive fair market value.”
“Using a forged signature?”
“I didn’t know about that until later.”
I laughed.
“You expect me to believe you suddenly discovered morals?”
“No.”
Jessica shook her head.
“I expect you to believe I discovered Ryan was planning to get rid of me.”
My mouth went dry.
She continued.
“He had the insurance policy. He had messages drafted to make it look like I was suicidal.”
I stared at her.
“And the accident?”
“I thought when he grabbed the wheel, he was trying to kill all of us.”
“All of you?”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“Me and Emma.”
“But he was in the car.”
“He was wearing his seat belt.”
“So were you.”
Jessica shook her head.
“Mine had been cut.”
I said nothing.
“Not enough to notice,” she continued. “Just enough that it snapped in the crash.”
“That could’ve happened during impact.”
“The police said that too.”
“So what proof do you have?”
She reached inside her jacket.
My body tensed.
She pulled out her phone.
“I found this after the accident.”
She opened a photograph.
It showed a box in Ryan’s old storage locker.
Inside were legal pads.
Cash.
Copies of my estate records.
And three life insurance policies.
One on Jessica.
One on Marlene.
One on me.
I stared at my own name.
“How much?”
Jessica zoomed in.
Two million dollars.
Beneficiary:
Ryan Carter.
My voice barely worked.
“I canceled our joint insurance years ago.”
“This isn’t that policy.”
“When was this opened?”
“Eight months ago.”
Two months before Ryan left me.
I looked up.
“My signature?”
“Forged.”
A car turned onto my street.
Jessica’s head snapped toward it.
“Who is that?”
I recognized the vehicle.
Marlene’s dark blue SUV.
Except Marlene wasn’t driving.
Ryan was supposed to be unable to walk.
Yet the SUV stopped directly in front of my house.
May you like
The driver’s door opened.
Ryan stepped out.
