The exact period when Marjorie had begun pressuring them to refinance.
Derek remembered every conversation.
Every dinner.
Every phone call.
Every time his mother had said:
“You two have all that equity sitting there.”
“You could help family.”
“You don’t need such a big house.”
“You should think about your future.”
At the time, Derek had thought she was giving financial advice.
Now he understood.
She had been trying to prepare him for something.
The officer placed another document on the desk.
“This is a power of attorney.”
Derek’s eyebrows pulled together.
“What’s that?”
“It gives someone authority to act on your behalf in certain financial matters.”
“Who?”
The officer pointed.
Derek looked.
His mother’s name appeared again.
The room seemed to tilt.
“No.”
He picked up the document.
“I never signed this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then we need to establish how this signature got here.”
Derek stared at the page.
Then something occurred to him.
“Olivia.”
Carlos looked at him.
“What?”
“She knew.”
Derek suddenly understood why she had been so careful.
Why she’d documented everything.
Why she’d stopped arguing.
Why she’d started moving her belongings.
She knew his mother was building a case.
Not against Olivia.
Against Derek.
The officer asked:
“Where is your wife?”
Derek hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you have a way to contact her?”
“Her phone goes straight to voicemail.”
“Do you believe she’s in danger?”
Derek looked at the documents.
Then at the folder.
Then at the image of Marjorie entering the apartment.
“Yes.”
The officer’s expression changed.
“Why?”
Derek opened his mouth.
Before he could answer, the shop’s front door opened.
Everyone turned.
A woman walked inside.
Derek recognized her immediately.
Rebecca Collins.
Olivia’s attorney.
Or perhaps not her attorney.
He wasn’t sure anymore.
Rebecca approached slowly.
“I need to speak with Derek.”
The officer stepped forward.
“Who are you?”
“Rebecca Collins.”
She showed identification.
“I represent Olivia Hale.”
Derek’s heart jumped.
“You know where she is?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Derek almost laughed from frustration.
“Everyone keeps telling me she’s safe. Nobody will tell me where she is.”
Rebecca studied him.
“Would you have believed her yesterday?”
Derek looked down.
“No.”
“Would you have believed her last week?”
“No.”
“Last month?”
He closed his eyes.
“No.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Then you understand why she isn’t ready to tell you.”
Derek’s voice cracked.
“I’ve made mistakes.”
“Yes.”
“I want to fix them.”
“That’s not something you get to decide for her.”
Derek looked at Rebecca.
She wasn’t angry.
That somehow made it worse.
“Did she know about this?”
He pointed toward the folder.
Rebecca nodded.
“She knew it was coming.”
“How long?”
“Since February.”
Derek stared at her.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Rebecca’s expression softened.
“She did.”
Derek frowned.
“No, she didn’t.”
“She tried.”
“She should have told me.”
“She told you repeatedly.”
Derek shook his head.
“She told me your mother was stealing.”
“And what did you say?”
He didn’t answer.
Rebecca did.
“You told Olivia she was trying to destroy your relationship with your mother.”
Derek looked away.
“She told you your mother had access to your financial information.”
Derek said nothing.
“She showed you suspicious transactions.”
Silence.
“She asked you to change your passwords.”
His eyes closed.
Rebecca continued.
“And you told her she was being paranoid.”
Derek swallowed.
“I was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
She picked up the black folder.
“There is one more thing you need to see.”
Derek looked at her.
“What?”
Rebecca opened the folder to the final section.
There were photographs.
Not of Marjorie.
Not of the apartment.
Of Derek.
Derek looked confused.
The first photograph showed him leaving the auto shop.
The second showed him entering a restaurant.
The third showed him meeting a man in a parking lot.
Derek frowned.
“I don’t know him.”
Rebecca pointed to the date.
“Look closer.”
Derek did.
His stomach dropped.
The photograph had been taken two months earlier.
The man was the same person from the apartment video.
The man with Marjorie.
Derek stared.
“I’ve never met him.”
Rebecca nodded.
“We know.”
“Then why is he following me?”
“That’s what Olivia wanted to find out.”
Derek flipped through the photographs.
There were dozens.
His truck.
His workplace.
His apartment.
Even the grocery store.
Someone had been watching him.
For months.
Then Derek saw one photograph that made his blood turn cold.
It showed Olivia.
Standing outside a bank.
Beside her was Marjorie.
They were arguing.
Derek recognized the date.
It was the same day Olivia had told him she was going to the bank to deposit a check.
He remembered coming home that night.
Olivia had seemed shaken.
He had asked what was wrong.
She’d said:
“Nothing.”
He’d accepted it.
The next photograph showed Marjorie handing something to the unknown man.
The next showed the man entering a bank.
The next showed him leaving with a folder.
Derek looked at Rebecca.
“What is this?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
“Identity theft.”
Derek stared.
Rebecca pointed toward another photograph.
“This is the man who prepared the fraudulent documents.”
“And my mother?”
“Your mother paid him.”
Derek’s jaw tightened.
“How do you know?”
“Bank transfers.”
“From her account?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Over forty thousand dollars.”
Derek felt dizzy.
“Forty thousand?”
“That we can trace.”
“That we can trace?”
Rebecca nodded.
“There are other payments.”
Derek stared at her.
“How much?”
“We don’t know yet.”
The officer stepped closer.
“Mrs. Hale has been documenting financial activity for months.”
Derek looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because she didn’t trust your mother.”
Derek whispered:
“She was right.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Unfortunately, being right wasn’t enough.”
“What do you mean?”
Rebecca opened another document.
“This is where things get more serious.”
Derek read the heading.
Life Insurance Beneficiary Change Request.
His face went pale.
“What is this?”
“Your mother’s attempt to change the beneficiary on your life insurance policy.”
Derek stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“It was submitted.”
“But I never requested it.”
“Exactly.”
Derek’s hands shook.
“Who was the beneficiary?”
Rebecca didn’t answer immediately.
Derek looked at the document.
His mother.
His mother had tried to make herself the beneficiary.
He felt sick.
Then another detail caught his eye.
The date.
The request had been submitted two weeks after Derek had taken out a new life insurance policy through work.
His mother had known about it.
How?
He looked at Rebecca.
“How did she know?”
Rebecca’s voice was quiet.
“Because someone gave her access to your private information.”
Derek’s heart stopped.
“Who?”
Rebecca looked directly at him.
“You did.”
Derek recoiled.
“What?”
“Think carefully.”
He did.
He remembered the night he had brought home paperwork from work.
He’d left it on the dining table.
He’d gone to shower.
Marjorie had been visiting.
He had trusted her.
He had trusted everyone.
Rebecca said:
“Your mother didn’t need to hack anything.”
Derek looked down.
“She had access.”
“Yes.”
“And I gave her that access.”
“Yes.”
Derek covered his face.
For the first time, he felt the full weight of what he’d done.
He hadn’t stolen Olivia’s money.
He hadn’t forged his own signature.
But he had created the conditions that allowed someone else to do it.
And Olivia had paid the price.
Rebecca closed the folder.
“There is one more thing.”
Derek looked up.
“What?”
“Olivia wants to meet you.”
His heart jumped.
“Where?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“I’ll give you the location in the morning.”
Derek frowned.
“Why not now?”
“Because she wants you to come alone.”
“I will.”
“And she wants you to bring nothing.”
Derek nodded.
“Fine.”
Rebecca turned to leave.
Derek stopped her.
“Rebecca.”
She looked back.
“Does she still love me?”
Rebecca didn’t answer immediately.
Then she said:
“That’s not the question you should be asking.”
Derek looked down.
“What should I ask?”
“Ask whether you can become someone she can trust.”
Then Rebecca walked out.
Derek stood in the middle of the office.
The police continued collecting evidence.
Carlos remained silent.
Eventually, Derek sat at his desk.
He looked around the office he’d occupied for nearly a decade.
The calendar.
The photographs.
The small model car Olivia had given him when he opened the shop.
Everything suddenly felt connected to a life he hadn’t appreciated.
His phone buzzed.
A message.
From Olivia.
Derek’s heart stopped.
He opened it.
There was no greeting.
No explanation.
Just one sentence.
Tomorrow, I will tell you what your mother did the night Dad died.
Derek stared at the screen.
His father’s death.
A subject nobody in the family ever discussed.
His father had died eight years earlier.
A heart attack, according to Marjorie.
At least, that was what Derek had always believed.
He typed:
What does my father have to do with this?
The message showed as delivered.
No response.
Derek tried again.
Olivia, please.
Nothing.
Then another message appeared.
Ask your mother why she changed the story three times.
Derek’s face went white.
He remembered.
Not clearly.
Just fragments.
His mother saying his father had collapsed in the kitchen.
Then later saying it happened in the garage.
Then once, years ago, she had said he had been driving.
Derek had never noticed the contradiction.
Or perhaps he had noticed it and simply refused to care.
His father had been dead.
There was nothing he could change.
But now—
Derek stood abruptly.
He grabbed his jacket.
Carlos looked at him.
“Where are you going?”
“To see my mother.”
Carlos stepped forward.
“Didn’t Olivia tell you not to?”
Derek stopped.
He looked at Carlos.
“She told me not to bring the papers.”
Carlos frowned.
Derek looked toward the parking lot.
“I don’t need to bring them.”
He walked outside.
The sun had nearly disappeared.
Derek started his truck.
But before he could pull out, his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice spoke.
“Mr. Hale?”
“Who is this?”
“You don’t know me.”
Derek’s grip tightened.
“Then why are you calling?”
“Because you’re asking questions you shouldn’t be asking.”
Derek’s heart pounded.
“Did you break into my office?”
Silence.
Then:
“You need to stop looking into your mother’s finances.”
“Or what?”
The man laughed quietly.
“Your wife tried to protect you.”
Derek froze.
“What did you say?”
“She failed.”
The line went dead.
Derek stared at the phone.
Then another notification appeared.
A photograph.
It had been sent from the same number.
Derek opened it.
His blood turned cold.
It showed Olivia.
Sitting alone in a parked car.
The photograph had been taken from across the street.
She was looking down at her phone.
On the back window of the car was a small reflection.
Someone was standing nearby.
Watching her.
Derek’s breathing stopped.
Under the photograph was one sentence:
Tell Olivia to stop digging.
Derek immediately called Rebecca.
No answer.
He called Olivia.
Straight to voicemail.
He started the truck.
This time he wasn’t going to his mother’s house.
He was going to find his wife.
Because suddenly the divorce papers didn’t matter.
The money didn’t matter.
The apartment didn’t matter.
Someone was watching Olivia.
And whoever that person was had just made a mistake.
They had threatened Derek.
And for the first time since this nightmare began, Derek wasn’t angry at Olivia.
He wasn’t angry at his mother.
He was terrified.
Terrified that he had spent months defending the person who had endangered the woman he loved.
He drove into the night.
And somewhere across Phoenix, Olivia’s phone lit up with a new message.
She opened it.
Her face changed.
Because the message wasn’t from Derek.
It was from her mother-in-law.
You should have left my son alone.
Olivia stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
Now you’re going to learn what happens when you cross me.
Olivia slowly locked her phone.
She looked toward the rearview mirror.
A dark SUV sat across the parking lot.
Its headlights were off.
It had been there for twenty minutes.
Olivia didn’t panic.
Instead, she reached beneath the driver’s seat.
Her fingers closed around a small recorder.
She pressed the button.
A red light appeared.
Then she whispered:
“Good.”
She looked at the SUV.
“Now I know exactly where you are.”
And for the first time, the person being watched wasn’t the one who was afraid.
Olivia started the engine.
Then she drove straight toward the police station.
Because she had finally decided to stop running.
And she was about to reveal the one piece of evidence she had kept hidden from everyone—even Derek.
The evidence that could destroy Marjorie’s entire story.
And possibly reopen the investigation into Derek’s father’s death.