Chapter 2
The paramedic wrapped my arm while Ryan stood outside in the snow, gripping his phone.
Diane had stopped screaming.
That frightened me more than the noise.
She leaned close to Ryan as he listened to the caller. Her wet dress clung to her body, but she no longer seemed to notice the cold.
“What happened?” my mother whispered.
“I don’t know.”
Ryan ended the call and pounded on the door.
“Emma, open this door!”
Daniel moved in front of me.
“No.”
“This is serious,” Ryan shouted. “Someone emptied our joint savings account.”
My heart stopped.
I had checked that account two days earlier.
There had been almost eighty thousand dollars in it.
Most of that money had come from my salary and the inheritance my grandmother had left me.
I opened the door but kept the security chain attached.
“What do you mean, emptied?”
Ryan pushed his face toward the narrow opening.
“The bank says the money was transferred yesterday. Did you do it?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
Daniel slammed his palm against the door.
“Lower your voice.”
Diane suddenly began to cry.
It was too quick.
Too perfect.
“Emma has always hated me,” she said. “She probably moved the money so Ryan couldn’t help his own mother.”
I looked at her.
Then I noticed the purse hanging from her shoulder.
It was mine.
A black leather purse Ryan had given me for my birthday.
I had left it in the upstairs closet.
“Why do you have my purse?”
Diane’s hand tightened around the strap.
“This is mine.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Ryan looked from the purse to me.
“Mom has one like yours.”
“My initials are inside the front pocket.”
Diane stepped backward.
Daniel was already pulling out his phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
“No!” Ryan shouted.
His reaction told me everything.
I removed the chain and opened the door.
“Give me the purse.”
Diane clutched it to her chest.
“You attacked me. I need evidence.”
“Evidence doesn’t include my wallet.”
She tried to run toward the car.
Daniel blocked the porch steps.
Dad took the purse from her and handed it to me.
My wallet was inside.
So were my driver’s license, two credit cards, and the small notebook where I kept emergency passwords.
One page had been torn out.
The page with my bank information.
I held it up.
“Where is the missing page?”
Diane said nothing.
Ryan rubbed his face.
“Mom, tell me you didn’t do this.”
She turned on him.
“I was saving you!”
“Saving me from what?”
“From her.”
The police arrived before she could say more.
An officer separated us while another searched Diane’s purse and coat.
They found the torn page folded inside her pocket.
They also found a bank receipt.
The money had been transferred into an account owned by a company called Whitmore Family Holdings.
Ryan’s last name was Whitmore.
But I had never heard of the company.
The officer looked at him.
“Is this your business?”
“No,” Ryan answered.
Diane interrupted.
“It belongs to the family.”
“What family?” I asked.
“Our family,” she snapped. “Something you were never truly part of.”
The officer asked who controlled the account.
Diane lifted her chin.
“I do.”
Ryan staggered backward.
“You stole our savings?”
“I protected what was yours.”
“It wasn’t mine. Most of it belonged to Emma.”
Diane looked at him with open disgust.
“Then you should have taken it before she left you.”
The words hung between us.
Before I left him.
This had not started tonight.
Diane had known our marriage was ending before I did.
The police arrested her for theft and assault.
Ryan tried to follow them to the patrol car.
Then a second vehicle pulled into my driveway.
A silver sedan.
A young woman stepped out, holding a sleeping baby against her chest.
Ryan went completely still.
The woman saw him and began to cry.
“You said you would tell her tonight.”
I looked at my husband.
“Tell me what?”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
The baby woke and reached toward him.
“Daddy,” the little boy whispered.
My burned arm suddenly felt numb.
May you like
Ryan had not only betrayed me.
He had built another family behind my back.
