Chapter 4 - Unearthing the Truth
By noon, the rain had stopped, replaced by a heavy, overcast sky. The roads grew narrower and more winding as we ascended into the mountains. Finally, I turned down a gravel driveway flanked by towering pines. At the end of the path sat my mother’s cabin, a sturdy log structure with smoke curling peacefully from the stone chimney.
When my mother, Clara, opened the door, her eyes widened in shock. Seeing my disheveled appearance, the manic glint in my eyes, and Lily clutching her stuffed rabbit, she didn't ask questions. She simply opened her arms.
"Come inside," she whispered, pulling us both into the warm, cedar-scented living room.
After feeding Lily a bowl of warm soup and settling her into the guest bedroom for a much-needed nap, I sat at the heavy wooden kitchen table with my mother. I poured out everything. I told her about Lily’s whispered warning, Derek’s suspicious phone call, the GPS tracker I found under the car, and the years of subtle gaslighting that had made me doubt my own sanity.
Clara listened intently, her face hardening with every word. She was a pragmatic woman, a retired nurse who had lived alone since my father passed away a decade ago.
"You did the right thing by running, Elena," Clara said, her voice fiercely protective. "Derek always had a darkness in him. A coldness that he covered up with money and charm. We need to find out exactly what he’s planning, and we need proof that the police will actually believe."
I opened the blue folder labeled DOCUMENTS that I had grabbed from the kitchen. As I spread out our birth certificates and bank statements, I noticed something tucked into the very back of the folder—a document I hadn't put there.
It was a copy of a life insurance policy Derek had taken out six months ago.
My breath hitched as I read the numbers. A two-million-dollar policy on my life, with a double-indemnity clause for accidental death. If I died in an accident, Derek would inherit four million dollars.
"Four million dollars," I whispered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "That's what my life is worth to him."
"Look at the date, Elena," Clara pointed to the bottom of the page. "He signed this right after you started asking questions about his firm's offshore accounts."
A cold realization washed over me. Derek wasn't just cheating on me or hiding money. He was involved in something much bigger, and my growing suspicion had made me a threat to his freedom.
I pulled out my phone, keeping it on airplane mode to prevent any tracking via cellular towers. I opened the photo I had taken of Derek’s flight itinerary. He was supposed to be at a corporate retreat in Denver. But when I looked closer at the flight number and the airline, something felt off.
"Mom, do you have a laptop?" I asked.
"In the den. It's old, but the satellite internet works," she said.
May you like
I fired up the old laptop and logged into a secure, private browsing window. I looked up the flight number from Derek's itinerary. The flight didn't exist. It was a completely fabricated document, printed out solely for my benefit to ensure I thought he was halfway across the country.
If Derek wasn't in Denver, he was still local. He was somewhere nearby, waiting for the "accident" to take place so he could return home, play the grieving, devastated husband, and claim his fortune.
