Chapter 4
Officer Grant wrapped a wet towel around Lily’s face.
The hallway was already filled with black smoke.
We could not reach the stairs.
“Window,” he shouted.
We were on the second floor.
Firefighters raised a ladder while Officer Grant broke the glass with a chair.
Lily went first.
Then Mom.
Claire climbed out next.
I was halfway through the window when I heard something behind me.
The hotel door opened.
A figure stood inside the smoke.
For one second, I saw a red coat.
Then the ceiling alarm exploded in sparks, and the figure disappeared.
Outside, Lily ran into my arms.
The fire department contained the flames before they spread beyond the hallway.
An investigator found a gasoline-soaked rag near our door.
This had not been an accident.
But security footage showed nothing.
The camera outside our room had been disabled nine minutes before the fire began.
Diane had been released on bail forty minutes earlier.
Ryan remained in custody because police had found multiple forged documents on his computer.
Officer Grant sent us to a protected location.
He also took the flash drive.
By afternoon, an investigator named Mara Lewis arrived.
She worked in the financial crimes division.
“The files connect Diane to several fraudulent accounts,” Mara said. “But the most recent records are encrypted.”
“Can you open them?”
“We’re trying.”
Claire sat beside the window, twisting her hands.
“There may be another copy in the storage unit.”
Mara had already requested a warrant.
While we waited, I checked our bank accounts.
Our savings were gone.
Forty-eight thousand dollars had been transferred three days earlier.
The receiving account belonged to Carter Family Consulting, a company I had never heard of.
Claire recognized the name.
“It’s Ryan’s company.”
“My husband doesn’t own a company.”
“He created it six months ago.”
I called our accountant.
He confirmed that Ryan had submitted documents claiming I was a co-owner.
My signature appeared on every page.
Forged again.
Ryan had not been dragged into Diane’s scheme.
He had built part of it himself.
That evening, Mara received the warrant.
The police searched Unit 214.
They found fake medical reports, blank school forms, copies of my identification, and a folder containing photographs of me taken without my knowledge.
Some showed me leaving work.
Others showed me buying wine.
One showed me crying in my car after my father’s funeral.
Each photograph had a handwritten caption.
EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE.
POSSIBLE SUBSTANCE ABUSE.
UNFIT PARENT.
Then Mara showed me the worst discovery.
A bottle of prescription sedatives with my name on it.
The pills had been hidden in a bag containing my clothes.
“I’ve never taken these.”
“The prescription was issued by Dr. Nathan Cole,” Mara said.
The same doctor named in the false custody petition.
“Where is he?”
“Missing.”
Dr. Cole had not reported to his clinic in three days.
Police found his car abandoned near the river.
Inside the trunk was one of my earrings.
I touched my ears instinctively.
The matching earring was gone.
I had last worn the pair at dinner with Ryan two weeks earlier.
“They’re framing me,” I whispered.
Mara’s expression was grim.
“For fraud, yes. But possibly for something worse.”
A police officer entered and handed Mara a phone.
She listened silently.
Then she looked at me.
“A body has been found near Dr. Cole’s car.”
My heart pounded.
“Is it him?”
“We don’t know yet.”
May you like
She paused.
“But whoever it is was holding a photograph of you.”
