Chapter 4 - THE SECOND PHONE

Maya photographed every item before we touched anything else.

Elias placed the flash drives in evidence bags.

I stared at the life insurance application until the words blurred.

“People buy policies on spouses all the time,” Maya said carefully.

“Not without telling them.”

“No.”

“And not with forged signatures.”

“No.”

I wanted her to tell me I was overreacting.

She did not.

The second phone required a six-digit code.

I tried Daniel’s birthday.

Nothing.

I tried Claire’s.

Nothing.

Then I entered Gate 42.

The screen opened.

Maya looked at me.

“Why did you try that?”

“Because men who believe they’re smarter than everyone else usually think they’re poets.”

The message history went back almost two years.

At first, it was exactly what I expected.

Flirtation.

Secret dinners.

Photographs from hotel rooms.

Promises that Daniel would leave me soon.

Then the messages changed.

Claire asked about money.

Daniel complained that I still controlled “the old trust structure.”

Richard told him that my ownership could be challenged if I were declared mentally unfit.

Lauren offered to introduce Daniel to a psychiatrist willing to document “episodes.”

My stomach tightened.

They had not simply planned to replace me.

They had planned to discredit me.

A message from Daniel to Richard appeared six months earlier.

Rachel still signs whatever I put in front of her.

A reply came seconds later.

Then keep her calm until the transfer is complete.

“What transfer?” Maya asked.

I searched the attachments.

There were draft documents moving the practice’s assets into a company called Northstar Medical Holdings.

The company was registered in Delaware.

Its managing members were Richard Bennett and Lauren Bennett.

Daniel would receive thirty percent.

Claire would receive ten.

My name appeared nowhere.

“They were stealing the practice,” I whispered.

Maya shook her head.

“They were trying to.”

A sound came from downstairs.

The front door opened.

Elias motioned for us to remain silent.

Footsteps moved through the foyer.

Then Daniel called my name.

“Rachel?”

He sounded calm.

Almost gentle.

Maya placed the insurance policy inside her briefcase.

Elias kept the second phone.

I closed the safe.

Daniel appeared in the doorway.

He looked at the open cabinet.

Then at the three of us.

His face hardened.

“You had no right to come into my office.”

I looked around the room inside the house we had purchased together.

“Your office?”

“You know what I mean.”

Maya stepped forward.

“I’m Maya Collins.”

“I know who you are.”

“Good.”

“Then you know my wife has no authority to remove confidential medical property.”

Elias raised the evidence bag containing the phone.

“There are no patient records on this.”

Daniel lunged for it.

Elias stepped aside.

Maya placed herself between them.

“Touch him, and this conversation moves to a police station.”

Daniel froze.

Then he looked at me.

“You went through my private messages?”

“You forged my signature.”

“I can explain.”

“You bought a house with Claire.”

Silence.

“You insured my life without my knowledge.”

His expression flickered.

That was the first accusation he could not reshape.

Before he answered, headlights swept across the windows.

A black SUV stopped outside.

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Richard entered the house carrying a document case.

He took one look at the open safe and whispered, “We’re too late.”