Chapter 5
Samantha Reed.
I repeated the name until it felt carved into my memory.
I had never met her.
Marcus had never mentioned her.
Yet someone using her name was trying to borrow money against the apartment my grandmother had left me.
"Can we stop it?" I asked.
Danielle nodded.
"The bank has paused the application after receiving our fraud notice. Their investigators are reviewing it."
I exhaled.
But the relief didn't last.
"What if they try another bank?"
"We've issued additional notices and are pursuing emergency legal protections. We'll keep monitoring the records."
My father stood beside the window.
"This has gone far enough."
Danielle looked at him.
"Arthur, we need to stay careful. Marcus and Evelyn have already made mistakes. Let the evidence speak."
He turned around.
"They struck my daughter."
His voice shook.
"They planned to incapacitate her. And they're still trying to take what belongs to her."
I walked toward him.
"Dad."
He looked exhausted.
I had spent my childhood believing he could solve anything.
Now I could see the helplessness beneath his anger.
I took his hand.
"We're going to beat them."
He swallowed.
"Yes, sweetheart. We are."
The next morning, Danielle brought news about Samantha.
She was twenty-nine.
A licensed real estate agent.
And she had worked on several transactions connected to M&E Holdings.
There was also a photograph.
Samantha stood beside Marcus at a business conference.
His arm rested comfortably around her waist.
I stared at it.
Something inside me tightened.
"Are they..."
Danielle hesitated.
"We don't know the nature of their relationship."
But I knew my husband.
I knew his smile.
I knew how he leaned toward a woman he wanted to impress.
And I knew the watch he wore in the photograph.
It was the watch I had given him for our first anniversary.
My throat burned.
"How long has she known him?"
"At least eighteen months."
Eighteen months.
Nearly my entire marriage.
Tasha sat beside me.
"Don't jump to conclusions until we know."
I appreciated her kindness.
But the truth had already started forming.
I remembered Marcus taking unexplained weekend trips.
Business conferences.
Investment meetings.
Late dinners that ended with him returning home smelling of a perfume I didn't own.
Every time I asked, he called me suspicious.
I had apologized for doubting him.
Now I wondered how many lies I had apologized for questioning.
Danielle continued.
"Samantha's involvement in the loan application may have been legitimate administrative work, or she may have known the documents were fraudulent. We need to speak with her."
My phone vibrated.
A message from an unfamiliar number.
Nia, my name is Samantha. I need to explain something. Please hear me out.
I stared at the screen.
"How did she get my number?"
Danielle immediately held out her hand.
"May I?"
I gave her the phone.
She read the message.
"Don't respond yet."
Another message arrived.
I didn't know he was married when we met.
My breath caught.
Tasha whispered, "Oh, no."
Then a third message.
Evelyn told me you were mentally unstable and that Marcus was legally separated from you.
I felt the room tilt.
My husband had not only stolen my trust.
He had rewritten my entire identity to another woman.
I sat down.
"He's been cheating on me."
Nobody answered.
They didn't need to.
I looked at my father.
His expression was full of pain.
But there was no pity.
Only love.
"Let me speak to her," I said.
Danielle shook her head.
"Not alone. Let's arrange a meeting in my office."
Samantha agreed.
She arrived that afternoon wearing a simple blue dress and carrying a leather folder.
She looked terrified.
When she saw me, her eyes immediately filled with tears.
"Nia, I'm so sorry."
I said nothing.
She sat across from us.
"Marcus told me you were getting divorced. He said you had been separated for over a year."
"We celebrated our anniversary six months ago," I replied.
Her face crumpled.
"He told me you only appeared together for family events because of your father's reputation."
I stared at her.
She was younger than me.
Pretty.
Nervous.
And apparently deceived.
But I wasn't ready to comfort her.
"Did you know about my apartment?"
Samantha nodded slowly.
"Yes. But Marcus said it was being transferred into his company as part of your divorce settlement."
I felt sick.
"Did you believe him?"
"He showed me documents."
"Documents with my signature?"
She nodded.
I looked at Danielle.
Samantha opened her folder.
"I brought copies."
Danielle examined them.
Then her expression sharpened.
"Where did you get these?"
"Marcus emailed them to me."
"Do you still have the emails?"
"Yes."
"Preserve them. We may need their original metadata."
Samantha looked at me.
"I wasn't trying to steal from you."
I studied her.
"Then why did you submit a new loan application after Marcus was arrested?"
She swallowed.
"Evelyn called me yesterday. She said Marcus had been falsely accused and asked me to finish paperwork I'd already started."
"And you did?"
"Yes. Until the bank called and told me the transfer was disputed."
I leaned forward.
"Why are you here now?"
Her hands began shaking.
"Because Marcus called me from custody through his lawyer's office. He told me to destroy certain emails and say I'd never met you."
Danielle sat upright.
"Did he put that in writing?"
Samantha shook her head.
"But I recorded notes immediately afterward."
I looked at her.
"And you decided to come here?"
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
"I finally understood he'd been lying to both of us."
I wanted to hate her.
Part of me did.
But the greater part of my anger belonged to the man who had built two lives out of deceit.
Danielle carefully collected copies of Samantha's documents.
Then Samantha reached into her folder again.
"There's something else."
She removed a photograph of a small office safe.
"Marcus kept this in our company office."
I stared at the words written on a label inside the photograph.
BENNETT FILES.
Samantha whispered, "He told me never to open it."
"What was inside?" Danielle asked.
Samantha looked directly at me.
"I opened it yesterday."
My heart hammered.
"And?"
She took out a sealed envelope.
"Your mother's death certificate was inside."
I stopped breathing.
My mother had died twenty years earlier.
Marcus had never even met her.
Why would he have her death certificate?
May you like
Samantha pushed the envelope toward me.
"And there was another document with her name on it."
