Chapter 5 - THE SIGNATURE
Marcus called his personal attorney in front of Khloe.
“Did you prepare a separation agreement for me?”
“No.”
“Did anyone ask you to?”
A pause.
“Adrian requested standard asset-planning materials last month. My office declined to provide marital documents without speaking to you directly.”
“Why wasn’t I told?”
“You were copied on the response.”
Marcus searched his inbox.
Nothing.
Then he checked the archive.
There it was.
Read.
Filed.
Forgotten by someone who wasn’t him.
Khloe listened from the bed.
“Someone’s been using your accounts.”
“Yes.”
“And you gave them enough access to do it.”
He looked at her.
“Yes.”
There was no point pretending he had been tricked without also admitting how easy he had made it.
Detective Ortiz photographed the envelope before collecting it.
“This is a draft,” she told Khloe. “It doesn’t give anybody custody of your child. But we need to know who created it and why it was placed in your bag.”
Khloe’s shoulders dropped slightly.
Only slightly.
Rachel arrived an hour later wearing jeans, a rain-soaked jacket, and the expression Marcus remembered from the day he married her sister.
Back then, she had warned him that money wouldn’t make up for being careless with Khloe.
Now she walked past him without a word.
Khloe started crying when Rachel hugged her.
“I kept thinking I could handle her.”
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
Marcus went into the hallway.
Through the door, he heard Khloe say something that nearly brought him to his knees.
“I thought if I stayed calm enough, he’d finally see it.”
Later, Ortiz returned.
Isabella had been arrested on suspicion of assault after separate interviews and the initial medical findings.
Marcus felt relief.
It lasted about six seconds.
“She’s claiming your wife threatened to expose a financial arrangement unless you agreed to a divorce,” Ortiz said.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“She gave us emails.”
“From whom?”
“An address using your wife’s name.”
Khloe sat up.
“I never sent her any emails.”
“We’ll examine them.”
Rachel held her sister’s hand.
Marcus looked at Ortiz.
“Tell me what to preserve.”
“Everything.”
As the detective left, Khloe’s phone buzzed.
An unfamiliar number.
There was no greeting.
Just a photograph of Khloe entering the hospital that evening.
May you like
Under it were six words.
You should have left the numbers alone.
