Chapter 5
The office was in a small business park near the highway.
The parking lot was dark.
Only a few lights burned in the windows of the other buildings.
Lisa parked next to my car.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked for the third time.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
We got out and walked to the front door.
I inserted the key.
It turned with a heavy click.
The alarm beeped once.
I typed in the code—our anniversary date, 0614—and the beeping stopped.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
We walked through the dark reception area.
Past the conference room where we’d celebrated our first big client.
Past the break room where we’d had countless late-night pizza dinners while building the business.
Every memory felt like a knife twist.
Daniel’s office was at the end of the hall.
His name was still on the door.
Daniel Carter.
CEO.
And mine right next to it.
Sarah Carter.
Co-Owner.
Not for long, if he had his way.
I pushed the door open.
His office was exactly as I remembered.
Mahogany desk.
Leather chair.
Bookshelves lined with awards we’d won together.
A framed photo of Ethan on his Little League team.
I wanted to throw up.
“Okay,” Lisa said, closing the door behind us. “Where do we start?”
“His desk. Start with the drawers. Then the filing cabinets. I need anything with my signature on it from the last three months. And anything that says ‘transfer’ or ‘Cayman’ or ‘power of attorney.’”
We split up.
Lisa took the filing cabinets against the wall.
I took the desk.
The top drawers were full of the usual stuff.
Pens.
Paper clips.
Receipts.
Old business cards.
The bottom left drawer was locked.
Of course it was.
I jiggled the handle.
Solid.
“Lisa, this one is locked. Do you see a key anywhere?”
She came over and looked.
“Try the little tray on his desk. Men always hide keys in the tray.”
I lifted the felt tray from the center drawer.
Underneath, taped to the wood, was a small brass key.
“Got it.”
I inserted it into the lock.
It turned.
I pulled the drawer open.
Inside was a single manila folder.
Labeled in Daniel’s neat handwriting:
SARAH – TRANSFER DOCUMENTS – EXECUTED
My hands shook as I lifted it out.
I opened it on the desk.
The first page made my blood run cold.
**BUSINESS INTEREST ASSIGNMENT**
I, Sarah Carter, hereby irrevocably assign, transfer, and convey all of my right, title, and interest in and to Carter Technologies LLC, including but not limited to all membership interests, profits, losses, distributions, and voting rights, to Daniel Carter, for the sum of $10 and other good and valuable consideration.
$10.
He had bought my half of the company we’d built together for ten dollars.
I flipped to the next page.
**GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY**
I, Sarah Carter, hereby appoint Daniel Carter as my true and lawful attorney-in-fact, with full power and authority to act in my name, place, and stead regarding any and all financial accounts, real property, personal property, and business interests, with the same force and effect as if I were acting personally.
He had the legal right to do anything he wanted with everything I owned.
Empty my bank accounts.
Sell the house.
Liquidate my retirement.
Anything.
Next page.
**QUITCLAIM DEED – PREPARED BUT NOT EXECUTED**
Prepared for my signature.
Transferring the house to him alone.
He hadn’t gotten this one yet.
That was the only thing I had left.
The house was still mine.
Half mine, anyway.
I kept flipping.
Bank statements.
Hundreds of them.
From an account I’d never heard of.
Cayman International Bank.
Account in the name of DC Holdings.
Balance as of last statement: $782,419.37.
Exactly what he’d said in the recording.
And the deposits.
Thousands of dollars every month.
Siphoned from our business accounts.
For six years.
Six years.
He’d been stealing from us for six years.
Long before Lila.
This wasn’t about her.
This was who he was.
A thief.
A liar.
A monster.
“Sarah?” Lisa said softly from behind me. “You need to see this.”
I turned.
She was holding a smaller folder she’d found in the back of the cabinet.
Pink.
Like a baby shower invitation.
“What is it?”
She handed it to me.
I opened it.
The first thing I saw was a sonogram.
Black and white.
Blurry little shape that was somehow still recognizable as a baby.
Dated three weeks ago.
Written on the back in Lila’s loopy handwriting:
“Our little girl. Can’t wait to meet you, Daddy.”
Underneath was a stack of emails.
Printed out.
Between Daniel and Lila.
Going back two years.
Two years.
I scanned them quickly.
*“Counting down the days until we can be together openly.”*
*“Sarah is so clueless. She actually thinks I’m working late.”*
*“Bought the ring today. Once the papers are signed, I’ll propose.”*
A ring.
He was going to marry her.
And then the last email.
Sent yesterday.
From Daniel to Lila.
“Everything is on track. Once she signs the house deed next week, we’re home free. I told her it’s just a refinance. She’ll sign anything I put in front of her. Then the baby will have everything. Everything that used to be hers.”
Next week.
He was going to take the house next week.
And I would have signed it.
Just like the others.
If Ethan hadn’t come home early.
If he hadn’t hidden behind that staircase.
If he hadn’t recorded everything.
We would have lost everything.
I dropped the papers on the desk.
“He was going to do it next week,” I said numbly. “The house. Everything. We would have been on the street and he would have been here with her and the baby, living in our house, spending our money.”
Lisa picked up the sonogram.
She looked at it with disgust.
“Sarah… we have everything we need. The recordings. The papers. The emails. This is ironclad. He can’t get away with this.”
I looked at all the evidence spread across his desk.
My life in pieces.
Laid out like a crime scene.
“Can’t he?” I said. “He’s already got the business. He’s already got the money in the Caymans. What if the judge says those signatures are valid? I did sign them, Lisa. No one held a gun to my head. I just didn’t read them.”
“Because he defrauded you! That’s coercion. That’s undue influence. Any judge with half a brain will see that. Especially when they hear the recordings. Especially when they find out about the Cayman account. He’s going to jail, Sarah. For a long time.”
I thought about Ethan.
What would this do to him?
Seeing his father arrested.
Testifying in court.
Having every dirty detail of our lives spread across the news.
He was already so broken.
This would destroy him.
But what choice did I have?
If I didn’t fight, Daniel would win.
He’d get everything.
He’d live happily ever after with Lila and the new baby.
And Ethan and I would be left with nothing.
No.
That wasn’t going to happen.
I started gathering the papers.
Every single one.
The transfer documents.
The power of attorney.
The bank statements.
The emails.
The sonogram.
All of it.
I stuffed everything into my bag.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“Where?”
“Home. I’m calling a lawyer. The meanest, nastiest divorce lawyer in Dallas. And then I’m going to make Daniel regret the day he was ever born.”
We turned off the lights and locked up.
As we walked to our cars, Lisa’s phone buzzed.
She looked at it.
Her face went white.
“Sarah… you need to see this.”
She handed me her phone.
It was a text from an unknown number.
Attached was a photo.
Me.
Walking into the office building five minutes ago.
May you like
Followed by a message:
“You shouldn’t have done that, Sarah. Now I have to do things the hard way.”
