Chapter 4
Lisa helped me lie down on the couch.
She pressed a cold glass of water into my hand.
“Tell me everything. From the beginning.”
So I did.
I told her about three weeks ago.
Daniel had come home with a thick manila envelope.
“Company stuff,” he’d said. “New partnership agreement. The lawyers said both of us need to sign off on a few things since you’re still listed as co-owner.”
I’d been swamped at work.
A huge project was due.
I’d been working twelve-hour days.
“Can’t you just explain it quickly?” I’d asked.
“Nothing to explain,” he’d said, flipping to the signature pages. “Standard boilerplate. The guys at the firm said it’s just updating our liability coverage. Sign here, here, and here. I’ll take them back tomorrow.”
I’d signed.
Three signatures.
Without reading a single page.
Without asking a single question.
Because I trusted him.
He was my husband.
“I’m so stupid,” I whispered, fresh tears spilling over. “How could I be so stupid?”
“You’re not stupid,” Lisa said firmly. “You were tired. You trusted the man you’ve been married to for almost two decades. That’s not stupidity. That’s being a good person.”
“Good people get destroyed,” I said. “Look at me. I just handed him everything on a silver platter.”
“We don’t know that yet. We don’t know what you signed.”
“I can guess. Transfer papers. Lila said so herself. He’s been planning this. For how long? A year? Two? The whole time I was working my ass off to help build that business, he was planning to steal it from me?”
I sat up, suddenly furious.
“The account too. All that money we saved. The college fund for Ethan. The retirement. What if he moved it all? What if there’s nothing left?”
“Then we hire the best lawyer in Dallas and we get it back. Every penny. Plus interest.”
I stood up and started pacing.
“I need to see those papers. I need to know exactly what I signed.”
“Daniel has them, right? He said he took them back to the office.”
“Then I’m going to the office.”
“Sarah, it’s almost seven o’clock at night.”
“I don’t care. I have a key. I’m going there right now and I’m finding those documents. If I have to stay all night, I will.”
Lisa stood up too.
“Then I’m coming with you. And first, we’re getting Ethan. He’s been locked up there long enough.”
We went upstairs together.
I knocked softly on Ethan’s door.
“Baby? It’s Mom and Lisa. They’re gone. It’s safe now.”
The dresser scraped again.
The door opened.
Ethan looked smaller than I’d ever seen him.
“Are they really gone?”
“Really gone. They won’t be back tonight.”
He stepped out and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“I heard everything through the door. About the papers. Did you really sign them?”
I knelt down so I was eye level with him.
“I think I did, baby. But I’m going to fix it. I promise you. Nothing bad is going to happen to us. Not if I can help it.”
“I have more videos,” he said quietly.
Lisa and I both froze.
“What?”
“After Dad saw me. Before I ran to my room. I kept recording. I hid my phone in my hoodie pocket but I left it on. I got everything they said when they thought I couldn’t hear.”
My heart stopped.
“Everything?”
“Everything. About the papers. About the money. About… about Lila.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
He tapped the screen.
Daniel’s voice filled the hallway.
“God dammit. How could you be so careless? You knew he got home early on Wednesdays.”
Lila’s voice, defensive.
“How was I supposed to remember? You’re the one who wanted to do it at the house. I said we should go to my place but you said it was ‘too risky’ there.”
“Because my neighbor is a cop who lives three houses down, Lila! Use your head.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter now. The kid saw us. What are we going to do?”
“Nothing. He’s thirteen. Who’s going to believe him over me? I’ll tell Sarah he was playing video games and imagined the whole thing. She’ll believe me. She always does.”
I closed my eyes.
He’d planned to call our son a liar.
My own husband.
“About the papers,” Lila said. “You’re sure they’re good? The lawyer said they’re ironclad?”
“Relax. She signed everything. Business transfers. Power of attorney for the accounts. The house is next. I just need to get her on the deed transfer and it’s done. By the end of the month, everything will be in my name. And then I file.”
“File for what?”
“Divorce, obviously. What did you think? Once it’s all mine, she gets nothing. Not the house. Not the business. Not a dime. She’ll be lucky if I let her keep her car.”
I gasped.
The house too.
He was going to leave us with nothing.
Homeless.
Penniless.
Nothing.
“And the other account?” Lila asked. “The one in the Caymans?”
“Already fully funded. Seven hundred and eighty thousand. All untraceable. She’ll never even know it exists.”
Seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
Our life savings.
Ethan’s college fund.
The money we’d scraped together for fifteen years.
Gone.
“When do I get to move in?” Lila asked. Her voice was casual. Like she was ordering takeout.
“End of next month. Once the divorce is final and Sarah is out. I already talked to the decorator. We’re redoing the whole first floor. She hated the kitchen anyway.”
My kitchen.
The one I’d designed myself.
Picked out every tile.
Every cabinet.
Every fixture.
He was going to tear it out for her.
“And Ethan?” Lila asked. “What about him?”
Daniel sighed.
“What about him? He’ll go with Sarah. I’ll pay child support or whatever. It’s not like I want him around anyway. After today, he’s just a liability.”
A liability.
Our son.
The boy who had worshipped him.
Who had wanted to be just like him when he grew up.
Just a liability.
Ethan’s hand tightened around his phone.
His face was completely blank.
No expression at all.
That scared me more than if he’d been screaming or crying.
I reached for him but he pulled away slightly.
The recording kept playing.
“One more thing,” Lila said. “The baby. You are going to tell her about the baby, right?”
Silence.
Then Daniel’s voice, softer than before.
“Not yet. Not until everything is signed and finalized. No point in upsetting her before we have to.”
The baby.
My vision swam.
The room tilted.
Lisa caught me before I fell.
“The baby?” I whispered. “Ethan… turn it off. Please.”
He tapped the screen.
Silence rushed back in.
We stood there in the hallway.
Three people who had just had their entire worlds shattered in the space of five minutes.
Ethan looked at me.
His eyes were dead.
“He’s having a baby with her.”
It wasn’t a question.
“I don’t know, baby. Maybe she was lying. Maybe—”
“He didn’t deny it, Mom. You heard him. He’s having a baby and he was going to leave us with nothing.”
He turned and walked back into his room.
He closed the door.
This time, there was no lock.
No dresser.
Just the soft click of the door latching shut.
I looked at Lisa.
She was crying too.
“A baby,” she said, horrified. “Oh my God, Sarah. He was going to leave you and Ethan for a pregnant woman. And take everything.”
I walked slowly down the stairs.
Into my kitchen.
The kitchen I’d designed.
The kitchen he was going to tear out.
I opened the junk drawer and pulled out the key to the office.
May you like
“Where are you going?” Lisa asked.
“To the office. I’m getting those papers. And then I’m going to destroy him.”
