Derek knew there had been papers. He just thought I had destroyed them years ago after he told me keeping old family documents was unhealthy, a sign I could not let go.
My father had died two months before our wedding. A heart attack, the doctors said. Sudden, unfair, and final. Derek had stepped into the wreckage with flowers, casseroles, and firm opinions about how I should manage everything. He had seemed steady then. Protective.
Now I wondered how long I had mistaken control for care.
Annie drove toward downtown using quiet streets. Rain began to fall in thin silver lines across the windshield.
“What did Lily hear exactly?” Martin asked.
I looked at my daughter.
She sat very still, clutching her rabbit.
“You don’t have to repeat it,” I said.
“Yes, I do,” Lily whispered.
The courage in her small voice broke something in me.
She swallowed. “Daddy said the lady was getting nervous. He said he couldn’t wait anymore. The man said, ‘What about the child?’ Daddy said, ‘She’ll be with Claire.’ Then Daddy said to make it look like an accident.”
Annie’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“The lady,” I repeated. “What lady?”
Lily shook her head. “I don’t know. Daddy called her Mar.”
“Mar?” Martin asked.
“Maybe short for Margaret,” Annie said.
Or Marissa.
The name arrived like a stone through glass.
Marissa Cole had been Derek’s bookkeeper three years ago. Young, efficient, always dressed in cream sweaters and gold jewelry. Derek had said she moved to Denver after accepting a better job. Her name had not entered our house since.
“What is it?” Annie asked.
I stared at the rain sliding down the window.
“I think I know her.”
The bank opened at nine. We arrived at 8:46 and waited behind a bakery delivery van in the lot. I borrowed Annie’s phone because mine, I realized with a jolt, had no service.
Not no signal.
No service.
Derek had removed me from the plan.
I stared at the useless screen in my hand, anger warming the edges of my fear.
“How long has it been like that?” Martin asked.
“I used it last night.”
“Then he timed it.”
Yes.
He had timed everything.
At nine sharp, I walked into the bank with Lily at my side and Annie behind us. Martin stayed in the car to watch the lot. The lobby smelled of carpet cleaner and coffee. A teller smiled brightly until she saw my face.