Chapter 2 - The Wife Who Was Never Supposed to KnowI couldn't sleep.
Vanessa sat across from me at the motel table while the laptop remained open between us.
“Explain,” I said.
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
“Somewhere Daniel can't find.”
I almost laughed.
“He already knows where I live.”
“He knows your house. He doesn't know where your father hid the original records.”
I stared at her.
“My father is dead.”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Is he?”
My stomach dropped.
My father had supposedly died eight years earlier.
A heart attack.
That was what Daniel and my mother had told me.
I remembered the funeral.
I remembered the coffin.
I remembered Daniel holding me while I cried.
But Vanessa's expression suggested there was something I didn't know.
“Tell me everything.”
She took a breath.
“Daniel didn't build his company from nothing.”
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
She opened another folder.
There were documents from twelve years earlier.
Company registrations.
Loan agreements.
Property records.
And my name appeared repeatedly.
Not as Daniel's wife.
As a guarantor.
I stared at the screen.
“What is this?”
“Your inheritance.”
I frowned.
“My inheritance was only a small trust.”
“That is what Daniel told you.”
She opened another document.
My father's estate had been worth more than four million dollars.
My father had transferred control of several properties into a family trust shortly before his death.
I had been the beneficiary.
Daniel had become the trustee.
I felt sick.
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because the trust was structured so that you couldn't access the assets without Daniel's approval.”
I looked at Vanessa.
“So he married me for my inheritance?”
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
She nodded.
“He needed your identity too.”
“For what?”
She opened a spreadsheet.
My name appeared beside dozens of financial transactions.
Daniel had used my identity to open accounts.
To move money.
To guarantee loans.
To purchase property.
For twelve years, I had unknowingly been the legal shield protecting his criminal empire.
I felt like I couldn't breathe.
Then Vanessa said something even worse.
“Daniel planned to kill you.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“The future transfer you found?”
She pointed at the document.
“It isn't a property transfer.”
“What is it?”
“Life insurance.”
My blood turned cold.
Daniel had purchased a massive policy on me.
The beneficiary was a company controlled by him.
The date three days from now was the date he planned to file the final paperwork.
“What are you saying?”
Vanessa lowered her voice.
“He wants everyone to believe you disappeared.”
My hands began shaking.
“How do you know?”
“Because I was supposed to help him.”
Silence.
“You?”
“I was supposed to lure you somewhere.”
I stared at her.
“But I couldn't.”
“Why?”
She looked down.
“Because I knew what happened to the last woman.”
“What woman?”
Vanessa didn't answer.
Instead, she reached into her bag.
She pulled out a photograph.
A young woman stood beside Daniel.
“She was Daniel's former business partner.”
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared.”
I looked at the photograph.
Her name was Rachel.
And beneath the photograph was a date.
Six years earlier.
My heart began racing.
“Did Daniel kill her?”
“I don't know.”
“But you think he did.”
Vanessa nodded.
“That's why I ran.”
Suddenly, someone knocked on the motel door.
Three slow knocks.
We froze.
Another knock.
Vanessa whispered:
“Don't move.”
The handle turned.
The door opened.
But nobody was there.
Only an envelope lay on the floor.
My name was written across it.
EVELYN CARTER.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph of me sleeping in my own bedroom.
On the back were six words.
You should have trusted your husband.
Vanessa stared at the photograph.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“He found us.”
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