Chapter 9 - The Second Drawer
I didn't hesitate. I stood up from the kitchen table, walked down the dim hallway, and pushed open the door to Tyler’s home office.
The room smelled faintly of his cologne—sandalwood and expensive leather—a scent that suddenly made my stomach turn. I walked over to the heavy mahogany desk he had used for years.
The top drawer held his passport, old tax returns, and spare pens.
I pulled it out entirely and set it on the floor. Reaching my hand into the dark cavity beneath the drawer slide, my fingers grazed a hidden wooden false bottom. I pressed the small release latch I had never known was there, and the lower panel popped upward with a soft click.
Inside the hidden compartment sat a heavy, fireproof black lockbox.
I pulled it out, setting it flat on the desktop. The combination lock required a four-digit code. I tried Mason’s birthday. Incorrect. I tried our wedding anniversary. Incorrect.
I paused, breathing out slowly, and typed in the date of Tyler’s first solo commercial flight—a date he talked about constantly during our early years of marriage.
Click.
The heavy lid sprang open.
Inside wasn't money or jewelry. It was a thick stack of legal documents, bank statements, and a yellowed envelope bearing a handwritten return address from a law firm in downtown Chicago.
I pulled the top document out and flipped to the signature page.
It was a real estate deed for a luxury condominium in downtown Chicago, purchased six months ago—and the primary name on the title wasn't Tyler.
It was registered under a trust managed by a woman named Chloe Vance.
Vance.
The name hit me like a physical blow. Arthur Vance. Marcus Vance. The same corporate bloodline that had tried to destroy Julian Cross and Claire Lane in Manhattan was directly tied to the woman my husband had been running away with.
My phone buzzed again on the desk.
Another incoming call from an unsaved number.
This time, I swiped answer immediately.
“Who is this?” I demanded into the receiver, my voice trembling with a terrifying realization.
May you like
“Hello, Sarah,” a smooth, chillingly familiar female voice answered from the other end of the line. “I believe you just found my daughter’s property deed. Welcome to the family.”
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