Chapter 4
Rachel grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t let her take the folder.”
Jenna stood immediately.
“What’s in it?”
“Everything.”
Diane started crossing the street.
Rachel looked terrified.
I pulled the folder against my chest.
“Sit down.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“You don’t understand Diane.”
“I lived with her for twelve years.”
Rachel gave me a strange look.
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“You lived around her.”
The coffee shop door opened.
Diane walked inside.
She wore a cream-colored coat and carried her purse like she had come to meet friends for lunch.
No anger.
No panic.
That made her scarier.
“Rachel.”
Rachel backed away.
Diane looked at me.
“Claire, you’re making a serious mistake.”
Jenna stepped between us.
“Stay away from my sister.”
Diane barely glanced at her.
“This is family business.”
Jenna laughed.
“You watched your son beat her.”
Several customers looked toward us.
Diane lowered her voice.
“Not here.”
“Why?” I asked. “Afraid somebody might hear?”
Diane’s eyes moved toward the folder.
“You have stolen private financial documents.”
“Rachel gave them to me.”
Rachel suddenly found her voice.
“They’re mine too.”
Diane turned toward her.
“I warned you.”
Rachel flinched.
I noticed it.
So did Jenna.
“What did she warn you about?” I asked.
Rachel shook her head.
Diane smiled.
“This woman had an affair with your husband, Claire. I’m surprised you’re trusting her.”
“I don’t trust her.”
Rachel looked hurt.
I continued.
“But I trust you even less.”
Diane’s smile disappeared.
“Give me the folder.”
“No.”
“If documents belonging to Michael’s business leave this building—”
“They already left.”
Everyone turned.
Detective Morgan stood near the entrance.
I had texted her the meeting location before we came.
Morgan approached.
Diane’s face tightened.
“I should have known.”
“You should have,” I said.
Morgan looked at Rachel.
“Ms. Hayes?”
Rachel nodded.
“I need to talk to you.”
Diane interrupted.
“She needs an attorney.”
Morgan looked at her.
“Ms. Bennett, are you representing her?”
“No.”
“Then let her answer.”
Diane’s jaw tightened.
Rachel sat.
Slowly.
Morgan joined us.
Diane remained standing until an employee asked whether she was ordering something.
She left.
But before she did, she looked directly at Rachel.
“You know what happens now.”
Rachel went pale.
Morgan watched Diane walk outside.
“What does that mean?”
Rachel’s eyes filled with tears.
“It means she’ll tell Michael I betrayed him.”
Morgan opened a notebook.
“Let’s start at the beginning.”
Rachel inhaled.
“I met Michael three years ago.”
She glanced at me.
“He hired the bookkeeping firm where I worked.”
“How long did the affair last?” I asked.
“Claire,” Morgan said gently.
“I need to know.”
Rachel looked down.
“About eighteen months.”
The answer hurt.
Of course it did.
But strangely, the affair no longer felt like the biggest betrayal.
It was one piece of a much larger machine.
Rachel continued.
“Michael told me you were separated.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He told me you slept in different bedrooms and were only staying together for Sophie.”
“We didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“When did you find out?”
“Last year.”
“And you stayed with him.”
Rachel nodded.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
Jenna placed a hand on my shoulder.
Rachel pushed the black folder toward Morgan.
“There are bank statements, emails, loan applications, and copies of messages Michael sent me.”
Morgan opened it.
Her expression became more serious with every page.
Then she stopped.
“What is this?”
Rachel looked at me.
“A timeline.”
I leaned forward.
January.
Michael transferred $10,000 from Sophie’s trust.
February.
He opened Bennett Consulting LLC.
March.
Another $8,000 transfer.
April.
He applied for the home-equity line.
May.
A therapist appointment appeared beside my name.
I frowned.
“I never went to therapy in May.”
Rachel shook her head.
“He did.”
“What?”
“He met with a family therapist and told her he was concerned about your emotional stability.”
I stared at her.
“He went to a therapist to talk about me?”
“He was documenting concern.”
My stomach turned.
June.
Diane contacted a custody attorney.
July.
Michael began moving money into the Rachel Hayes account.
August.
Another line appeared.
Claire argument video 1.
September.
Claire argument video 2.
October.
Claire medication concern.
I looked up sharply.
“What medication?”
Rachel’s face tightened.
“I don’t know.”
Morgan looked through the folder.
“There’s an email.”
She read silently.
Then slid it toward me.
It was from Michael to Diane.
Mom,
We need to establish that Claire is careless with medication. If there is ever a custody evaluation, that matters.
My vision blurred.
“I don’t take medication.”
“I know,” Rachel said.
I read farther.
Diane’s reply:
Leave that to me.
My skin went cold.
“What did she do?”
Rachel shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Then I remembered something.
Three months earlier, Diane had stayed with us while Michael attended a conference.
One afternoon she had offered me tea.
I drank half of it.
Twenty minutes later, I became so dizzy I had to lie down.
Diane had taken a video.
She said she wanted to show Michael how exhausted I was.
I had forgotten about it.
Until now.
“She drugged me.”
Morgan immediately raised one hand.
“We don’t know that.”
“She gave me tea. I got dizzy. Then she recorded me.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
Morgan wrote quickly.
“Do you still have anything from that incident?”
“No.”
“Medical visit?”
“No. Diane told me I was overtired.”
Rachel suddenly pulled out her phone.
“There’s more.”
She searched.
Then handed it to Morgan.
A text from Michael.
MOM GOT THE VIDEO. CLAIRE LOOKS COMPLETELY OUT OF IT.
Diane replied with a laughing emoji.
I stood so fast my chair scraped the floor.
Jenna grabbed me.
“I’m going to kill her.”
“Claire.”
“She drugged me in my own house!”
Morgan stood.
“Do not contact Diane.”
“She was near my child!”
“Exactly why you need to be careful.”
Sophie.
I froze.
“She makes Sophie snacks all the time.”
Jenna grabbed her phone.
“Sophie is with Daniel.”
Daniel was Jenna’s husband.
“He won’t let anyone near her.”
I breathed again.
Barely.
Morgan asked Rachel to continue.
The hidden account was not technically Michael’s personal savings.
It was a clearing account.
Money came in.
Then moved out.
Some went to business expenses.
Some paid Michael’s personal credit cards.
Some went to hotels.
Some went to Diane.
And nearly thirty thousand dollars was still missing.
“Where?” Morgan asked.
Rachel hesitated.
“I think cash.”
“Why?”
“Michael started withdrawing it after he spoke to the custody lawyer.”
My voice came out thin.
“Was he planning to run?”
Rachel looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“But?”
She swallowed.
“He asked me once how difficult it would be to open an account outside the country.”
My hands became cold.
“For himself?”
“He didn’t say.”
Morgan continued going through documents.
Then she pulled out a printed email.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
I asked.
She rotated the page.
The subject line read:
SOPHIE PASSPORT.
I stopped breathing.
I had never applied for a passport for Sophie.
Morgan read aloud.
“Once we get the replacement birth certificate, Mom can handle the appointment issue.”
I stared at Rachel.
“What appointment?”
Rachel shook her head.
“I never saw the rest of that conversation.”
“Did Michael get her a passport?”
“I don’t know.”
I called Jenna’s husband immediately.
“Put Sophie on.”
Seconds later Sophie answered.
“Mommy?”
“Baby, where’s your blue folder?”
“What folder?”
“The one with your birth certificate.”
She was quiet.
“Daddy took it.”
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
“How long?”
“Before Christmas.”
My heart started pounding.
“Did he say why?”
“He said we might take a trip.”
“What trip?”
“He said it was a surprise.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did he tell you where?”
Sophie thought.
“No.”
Then she said something that made every person at the table go still.
“He said it would be just me and him.”
I whispered, “What about Mommy?”
Sophie answered innocently.
“He said you wouldn’t be coming.”
Morgan was already standing.
She called another officer.
Rachel started crying.
“I didn’t know.”
I shoved the folder toward Morgan.
“Find out whether he got that passport.”
“We will.”
“And if he did?”
Morgan looked at me.
“Then your attorney needs to know immediately.”
My phone vibrated.
A message from Michael.
I showed Morgan.
It said:
YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE WRONG WOMAN.
Another appeared.
RACHEL IS LYING TO SAVE HERSELF.
Then a third.
ASK HER WHO FORGED YOUR SIGNATURE.
I slowly looked across the table.
Rachel had stopped crying.
Her face had gone completely white.
“What does he mean?”
She said nothing.
I stood.
“Rachel.”
“I can explain.”
My heart sank.
“What did you do?”
She closed her eyes.
May you like
And whispered,
“I notarized the loan.”
