Chapter 9 - THE SISTER WHO CHANGED SIDES
Detective Sloan refused to let me go.
She sent officers instead.
Mallory was waiting at a gas station four miles from the mansion.
She arrived at Martin's office carrying a duffel bag and a laptop.
Her mascara had streaked down her cheeks.
She looked nothing like the smug woman who had laughed in the laundry room.
She looked terrified.
“I didn't know everything.”
I folded my arms.
“You knew enough.”
She lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn't.”
The answer surprised me.
Mallory placed the laptop on the table.
“But you should trust this.”
She entered a password.
A folder opened.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Emails.
Scanned identification documents.
Bank applications.
Photos.
I recognized my driver's license.
My passport.
My corporate signature.
There were also files belonging to Natalie.
And another woman.
And another.
I looked at Mallory.
“How many?”
She swallowed.
“Four that I know of.”
Natalie went pale.
Mallory continued.
“Derek told me they were business disputes.”
“Mom told me the women were trying to ruin him.”
“I believed them.”
“Until Chloe.”
“Why?”
“Because yesterday was different.”
She looked at me.
“When he threw that rag at you, everyone laughed.”
“I laughed too.”
Her voice cracked.
“But you looked at him like you had suddenly understood something.”
“And for the first time, I wondered what all those other women had understood.”
I did not forgive her.
But I listened.
Mallory explained that Brenda kept records because she trusted no one.
Receipts.
Passwords.
Loan documents.
Private messages.
She had trained her children to save evidence against everyone around them.
Including each other.
Mallory had secretly copied the folder after Derek once threatened to blame her for an old loan application.
“Where did you get this?”
“Mom's computer.”
“The one used to file the postnuptial document?”
“Yes.”
Detective Sloan leaned forward.
“Do you know who uploaded it?”
Mallory nodded.
“My mother.”
The room became still.
“Did Derek ask her to?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Did you hear him?”
“I recorded it.”
She opened an audio file.
Derek's voice filled the room.
Upload it before Chloe reaches her lawyer.
Then Brenda.
What if they check the signature?
Derek answered.
By the time they do, she'll be negotiating.
My father closed his eyes.
The cruelty was no longer hidden.
It was organized.
Routine.
Confident.
Mallory opened another folder.
“This is the loan application.”
Martin leaned closer.
The $3.2 million line of credit was there.
So was the forged authorization.
But attached to it was something we had not seen.
A valuation report.
For one of my industrial properties.
The report estimated the property at $12.4 million.
Derek had known far more about my business than I realized.
At the bottom was the consultant's name.
Wesley Grant.
I recognized it immediately.
Wesley was Derek's best man.
The man who had toasted our marriage.
The man who had hugged me after the ceremony and called me family.
Martin stared at the report.
“This was not one person.”
No.
It was a network.
Derek.
Brenda.
Wesley.
Possibly others.
And somewhere inside those files was a list of every person who had helped build the trap around me.
Then Detective Sloan opened one final document.
Her expression changed.
“Chloe.”
“What?”
“You need to see this.”
It was a draft email written by Derek two weeks before the wedding.
The subject line contained four words.
May you like
AFTER CHLOE IS REMOVED.
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