Chapter 8 - THE SECOND WOMAN
Police opened a formal fraud investigation.
Christopher filed for a protection order.
The bank froze the twenty thousand dollars that remained in Dwight’s account.
Only eleven thousand was left.
Nine thousand had already disappeared.
“Where did it go?” I asked.
Christopher slid a statement across the desk.
“Cash withdrawals. Payments to Mercer Home Renovations. And this.”
A transfer.
$3,500 — A. Monroe.
Ashley.
I drove straight to her apartment.
She opened the door and went pale.
“You lied.”
“About what?”
I held up the statement.
“You said Dwight never paid you.”
Ashley’s face crumbled.
“That wasn’t payment.”
“What was it?”
“Rent.”
“For what?”
She looked away.
My stomach dropped.
“Were you living with him somewhere?”
“No.”
“Ashley.”
“It was a deposit.”
“On what?”
She started crying again.
“A townhouse.”
I stared at her.
Dwight had been planning a second home with her.
While telling me we couldn’t move out of his parents’ apartment yet.
“How long?”
“We signed the lease two months ago.”
I felt numb.
“He was going to move in with you after divorcing me.”
She nodded.
I walked away before I did something I would regret.
But outside, Ashley ran after me.
“Elizabeth!”
I kept walking.
“He lied to me too!”
I turned around.
“Do not compare us.”
“I thought he loved me.”
“You slept with my fiancé for a year.”
Her mouth opened.
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You knew about my inheritance. You knew about the fake apartment. You knew he planned to divorce me.”
“I didn’t know about the forged loans.”
“That doesn’t make you innocent.”
She cried.
“I know.”
“Good.”
I turned away.
Then she shouted something.
“There’s another woman.”
I stopped.
Slowly turned.
“What?”
Ashley wiped her eyes.
“I found messages last month.”
“With who?”
“I don’t know her real name. He saved her as ‘M.’”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Dwight had been cheating on me with Ashley.
And cheating on Ashley with someone else.
“How romantic.”
“It matters.”
“Why?”
“Because he told her he’d have money soon.”
Ashley pulled up screenshots she had secretly taken.
One message from Dwight read:
By summer, I’ll be free. Dad gets his cut, Ashley gets enough to stay quiet, and then it’s us.
The woman replied:
And your wife?
Dwight:
She’ll be too busy fighting the family to see me coming.
I sent everything to Christopher.
The police traced the number.
The woman’s identity came back hours later.
Melissa Grant.
Age thirty-eight.
Occupation:
Senior loan officer.
At the same financial institution where Dwight had submitted the fraudulent home equity application.
Christopher stared at the report.
“This just became much bigger.”
“Why?”
“Because if Melissa helped him push forged documents through the system…”
He didn’t finish.
He didn’t need to.
This wasn’t just a greedy husband anymore.
It was potentially organized financial fraud.
That evening, police obtained an emergency warrant for Jared’s office.
They opened the safe.
Inside were my forged signatures.
Copies of my driver’s license.
My Social Security number.
Estate documents.
Loan applications.
And a handwritten ledger listing names and amounts.
At the bottom of the final page was one line:
ELIZABETH — TOTAL AVAILABLE: $687,400.
But beneath my name was another woman’s.
Another amount.
And a date from three years earlier.
Christopher looked at me.
“Elizabeth…”
May you like
I already understood.
I wasn’t the first woman the Mercer family had done this to.
