Chapter 4
The call changed everything.
Until then, I had imagined Sarah as the person controlling the nightmare.
Suddenly, she looked like one piece of something bigger.
Daniel sent the recording directly to investigators.
The number was blocked.
They began tracing it anyway.
I spent the afternoon pacing my mother’s living room while Emily colored at the table.
Every time a car slowed outside, I looked through the blinds.
Every time my phone buzzed, my heart jumped.
I hated feeling afraid.
Not for myself.
For her.
Emily looked up from her drawing.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you keep looking outside?”
I forced a smile.
“Just checking the weather.”
She looked through the window.
“It’s sunny.”
Mom covered a laugh with a cough.
I sat beside Emily.
“What are you drawing?”
“Our house.”
There were three people.
Me.
Emily.
Grandma.
Sarah wasn’t there.
I didn’t know whether that made me relieved or heartbroken.
Children should not have to erase a parent to feel safe.
At three that afternoon, Detective Rebecca Sloan arrived.
She was assigned to the forgery investigation.
She had spent the morning at Sarah’s property.
“I need to ask you some questions,” she told me.
Daniel was present.
So was Emily’s child advocate.
Rebecca placed several photographs on the table.
They showed the home office.
Sarah’s desk.
Stacks of documents.
Then a small metal box.
“Recognize this?”
“No.”
She opened another photo.
Inside were multiple identification cards.
Copies of my driver’s license.
My Social Security card.
Bank records.
Old checks.
“Jesus.”
Rebecca studied me.
“Your wife had everything necessary to imitate your financial identity.”
“She was my wife. Some of that stuff was already in the house.”
“Not like this.”
She slid another image forward.
It showed practice signatures.
Hundreds of them.
Michael Carter.
Michael J. Carter.
M. Carter.
My stomach turned.
“She practiced.”
“For a long time.”
Daniel asked, “Anything connecting the unidentified partner?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“One item.”
She produced a hotel receipt.
The reservation was under Sarah’s name.
But room service had been charged to someone else’s credit card.
“Whose?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Officer Ryan Cole.”
I knew the name.
I couldn’t place it at first.
Then everything clicked.
My arrest.
The officer who arrived before anyone else.
The officer who claimed I resisted.
The officer who wrote that Sarah was visibly terrified.
“He arrested me.”
Rebecca nodded.
“He was first responding officer.”
I felt cold.
“He’s R.”
“We’re investigating.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Does he have access to the evidence system?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“He could have added the confession.”
Rebecca didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to.
I thought back to the night I was arrested.
Sarah had called police after claiming I shoved her into a cabinet.
I had been in the garage.
When I came inside, she had a bruise on her shoulder.
Ryan Cole arrived within minutes.
Too fast.
At the time, I thought she had called before I walked in.
Now I wondered if he had already been nearby.
“Were they having an affair?”
Rebecca’s eyes flickered.
“We found messages.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
It was almost laughably predictable.
Except nothing about it felt funny.
“How long?”
“At least fourteen months.”
My marriage had ended long before I knew it was ending.
Daniel touched my arm.
I pulled away, not because of him.
I simply couldn’t stand being touched at that moment.
Rebecca continued.
“The messages include references to money.”
“The trust.”
“Yes.”
“Anything about framing me?”
“They used coded language.”
“Meaning?”
“Project. Deadline. Problem.”
I almost smiled.
“I’m the problem.”
Rebecca did not disagree.
Then she showed me one final photograph.
It was a phone found in Sarah’s desk.
Not her regular phone.
A second one.
One message from Ryan was visible.
HE WON’T SURVIVE PRISON LONG ENOUGH TO COME BACK FOR HER.
My hands started shaking.
Daniel cursed under his breath.
“They expected me to die.”
Rebecca’s voice softened.
“We don’t know exactly what they expected.”
“Yes, you do.”
I pointed to the message.
“He wanted me dead.”
Emily walked into the room before Rebecca could respond.
She was holding her rabbit.
Everyone immediately stopped talking.
“What happened?”
I stood.
“Nothing, sweetheart.”
She looked at Rebecca.
“You’re police.”
Rebecca smiled.
“Yes.”
Emily moved closer to me.
“Are you taking Daddy again?”
The fear in her voice destroyed me.
Rebecca lowered herself to Emily’s height.
“No.”
Emily studied her.
“You promise?”
Rebecca glanced at me.
Then back at Emily.
“I came here because I’m trying to help your daddy.”
Emily considered that.
Then she whispered something.
“Mommy has another phone.”
Rebecca froze.
We all did.
“What do you mean?”
Emily pointed toward the picture of Sarah’s office.
“That one isn’t the secret one.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where is the secret one?”
Emily looked nervous.
“Mommy said bad people would come if anybody found it.”
Rebecca stayed calm.
“Do you know where she keeps it?”
Emily nodded.
“In my dollhouse.”
Nobody spoke.
Ten minutes later, Rebecca was on the phone requesting another search.
The dollhouse was still inside Sarah’s home.
Police returned that evening.
At 7:42, Rebecca called Daniel.
He put the phone on speaker.
“We found it.”
I gripped the table.
“And?”
“There are recordings.”
Sarah had recorded phone calls.
Arguments.
Meetings with Ryan.
Some appeared to be insurance against him.
Daniel asked the obvious question.
“Anything useful?”
Rebecca was quiet.
Then she said,
“We found a video.”
“What video?”
“It shows Sarah injuring herself before she called police the night Michael was arrested.”
My eyes closed.
The room seemed to tilt.
Daniel whispered,
“That clears him.”
Rebecca continued.
“There’s something else.”
My heart began pounding again.
“What?”
“In the recording, Ryan asks what happens if Michael refuses the plea.”
I swallowed.
“And what does Sarah say?”
May you like
Rebecca’s answer made every hair on my arms rise.
“She says, ‘Then we use Emily.’”
