Chapter 7
I did not go alone.
I followed Ryan’s instructions, but Detective Hale placed a tracker beneath my coat.
Officers surrounded the cabin from a distance.
The flash drive in my pocket was a copy.
The original remained locked inside the bank.
Rain hammered the roof when I entered.
Megan sat near the fireplace with her wrists tied.
There was blood on her lip.
Ryan stood behind her.
He held no gun.
That frightened me more.
It meant he believed he could still control the situation without one.
“Give me the drive,” he said.
“Let Megan go.”
“She destroyed our family.”
“No. Your mother did that.”
His face tightened.
“Mom protected us.”
“She used you.”
“You don’t know her.”
“I know she made you lie about your father. I know she sent you to marry me. I know she planned the beating.”
Ryan looked at Megan.
“You told her everything.”
“I told her the truth,” Megan said.
He struck the back of her chair.
“Truth is whatever survives.”
I removed the flash drive.
Ryan reached for it.
I pulled it back.
“First, tell me about the document.”
He smiled.
“You signed it during our honeymoon.”
“I signed hotel papers.”
“You signed what I placed in front of you.”
The betrayal was so casual that I almost could not breathe.
“Did you ever love me?”
For the first time, his confidence weakened.
He looked toward the window.
“That wasn’t the plan.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Yes,” he snapped. “I loved you.”
Megan stared at him.
“Then why did you let Mom beat her?”
“Because Claire was leaving me with nothing!”
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me what you decided I deserved.”
His voice rose.
“You controlled the house. You controlled the money. You made me feel like a guest in my own life.”
“I paid your debts and supported your business.”
“And reminded me every day that I needed you.”
I realized Ryan had rewritten kindness as humiliation because gratitude required honesty.
His phone buzzed.
Diane was calling.
He answered on speaker.
“Do you have the drive?” she asked.
“Almost.”
“Then finish it. The police found Victor.”
Ryan looked shocked.
“You said he was dead.”
Megan and I both froze.
Diane continued before realizing the call was on speaker.
“I told you to make sure. You never complete anything properly.”
Ryan’s face emptied.
“You told me the bullet only grazed him.”
“I told you what you needed to hear.”
“You used me.”
Diane laughed.
“Don’t become weak now. Take the drive and burn the cabin.”
Megan began struggling against the rope.
Ryan stared at the phone.
“You said Claire would sign the house over. You said nobody would get hurt.”
“And you believed me because believing was easier than thinking.”
Something changed in him.
For one second, I saw the frightened boy Victor had described.
Then headlights appeared outside.
Ryan panicked.
He grabbed the drive from my hand and pushed me aside.
Police ordered him to come out.
Instead, he rushed toward the back door.
Megan kicked the table into his path.
He fell.
I pulled the fireplace tool away from him and cut Megan’s ropes with a pocketknife.
Ryan reached into his jacket.
Officers broke through the door.
“Show us your hands!”
Ryan slowly raised them.
He was holding my wedding ring.
“I kept it,” he said to me.
Police forced him to the floor.
As they handcuffed him, he looked at Diane’s name glowing on his phone.
“Help me testify against her,” he begged. “We can still fix this.”
I stepped back.
“There is no ‘we’ left to fix.”
Outside, Hale told me Diane had vanished from her home.
Her accounts were empty.
Her passport was gone.
May you like
But before she disappeared, she sent one final message to Ryan.
It contained a photograph of my father asleep in his hospital room.
