Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MONEY
We left the bank through a private entrance and drove straight to a small office building the detective had arranged for us. Lily was sleeping in the back seat, unaware that her entire world had changed overnight. I sat beside her, staring through the window as the city passed by. Only twenty-four hours earlier, I had been standing in my own kitchen being told that I was worthless. Now I was sitting in a borrowed car with evidence that my husband had stolen my company, my attorney had betrayed me, and someone was threatening to take my daughter.
But one question kept repeating in my mind.
Why had Evelyn given me $812,463.70?
The detective placed the second envelope on the table.
"She told us not to open this until you were safe."
I looked at it.
My name was written across the front in Evelyn's handwriting.
Diane.
If you're reading this, Scott knows about the box.
I swallowed hard and opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Evelyn standing beside a much younger Scott.
Behind them was the garage where Scott and I had started our business fifteen years earlier.
But that wasn't what shocked me.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
Three months before Scott and I were married.
Underneath it, Evelyn had written one sentence.
He was already planning to take your company.
I looked at the detective.
"What does this mean?"
He placed another document on the table.
"It means Scott didn't become interested in your company after you got married."
He turned the document toward me.
"He was interested before the wedding."
The document was an old insurance policy.
My name was listed as the primary beneficiary.
Scott had signed as a witness.
But underneath his signature was another name.
Vanessa Reed.
My breath caught.
Vanessa had known Scott long before I met her.
She hadn't entered our lives recently.
She had been waiting.
I suddenly remembered something I hadn't thought about in years. The first time I met Vanessa at a charity dinner, she had looked at me strangely. Not with jealousy. Not with curiosity.
Recognition.
As if she already knew who I was.
The detective opened the flash drive again.
"There are more recordings."
The first showed Scott meeting Vanessa.
The second showed Daniel Mercer meeting them.
The third showed Evelyn entering the same restaurant.
I leaned forward.
"Play Evelyn's."
The recording began.
Scott's voice came first.
"You either help me, or I tell Diane everything."
Evelyn answered quietly.
"You won't get away with it."
Scott laughed.
"You'd be surprised what people believe when the right attorney signs the right papers."
Then Evelyn said something that made my entire body go cold.
"She isn't the only person you're trying to steal from."
Scott went silent.
Evelyn continued.
"You're stealing from your own daughter."
The recording ended.
I stared at the screen.
"My daughter?"
The detective didn't answer.
I looked at Lily sleeping in the other room.
Then the phone rang.
It was Evelyn.
I answered immediately.
"Evelyn, what did you mean?"
Her voice was weak.
"Diane, you have to listen to me."
"Tell me what's happening."
"I didn't throw you out because I hated you."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
Her voice cracked.
"I threw you out because Scott had people watching the house."
I froze.
"What?"
"If I had given you the money openly, they would have followed you."
"Who?"
There was a long silence.
Then Evelyn whispered,
"The people who killed my husband."
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone.
Evelyn's husband had died eight years earlier.
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Everyone had called it a heart attack.
But now I wasn't sure anyone had told me the truth.
