The footsteps disappeared.
For nearly a minute, neither of us moved.
Then Colin whispered, “They're gone.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
I kept the phone light trained on the door.
The police were on their way, but every second felt too long.
“What did that note mean?”
Colin looked at the paper.
“I've seen those words before.”
“Where?”
“In a message.”
“From whom?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
He looked at me.
“I wish I were.”
The police arrived less than ten minutes later.
Two officers searched the building.
The side entrance had been left unlocked.
There were no obvious signs of forced entry.
The hallway camera had stopped recording at 9:16 that morning.
The office alarm had been disarmed at 9:17.
Whoever entered had either known the system or had access to someone who did.
One officer asked Colin who else had keys.
He listed three employees.
Then his former business partner.
Then Mallory.
I watched the officer write her name.
“Why does your wife have access to the office?”
Colin hesitated.
“She helped with some administrative work.”
I looked at him.
“You never told me that.”
“I know.”
The officer looked between us.
“Does she still have a key?”
Colin nodded.
The officer wrote that down too.
When they left, the office seemed colder.
I turned to him.
“You need to tell me everything now.”
“I will.”
“No more protecting me.”
He nodded.
“No more protecting Brynn by keeping her in the dark.”
“I know.”
“No more secrets.”
He looked at the floor.
Then he said, “Mallory wasn't supposed to marry me.”
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
“She wasn't supposed to become my wife.”
“Then what was she supposed to be?”
He sat behind his desk.
“Someone who got close enough to learn things.”
I felt my stomach twist.
“Who hired her?”
“I don't know.”
“You said someone paid her.”
“I said I think someone did.”
“You're not making sense.”
He opened a cabinet.
Inside was another folder.
Thicker than the one we'd been searching for.
He placed it on the desk.
“These are copies.”
“Of what?”
“Transactions.”
I opened it.
Bank transfers.
Company payments.
Names I didn't recognize.
Dates.
Amounts.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Mallory's maiden name.
I looked at Colin.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“For how long?”
“Six months.”
I closed the folder.
“Six months.”
“Yes.”
“You've spent six months knowing your wife might have entered your life for money.”
“Yes.”
“And you still lived with her.”
“I was trying to find proof.”
“You let Brynn stay around her.”
“I thought she was safe.”
“Until she wasn't.”
His shoulders dropped.
“Yes.”
I looked at the papers again.
“What's in the missing folder?”
“Something that proves where the money went.”
“Whose money?”
“My company.”
“Could Mallory have stolen it?”
“Not alone.”
“So there's somebody else.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
I almost laughed.
“Colin.”
“I know.”
“No. You keep giving me pieces and expecting me to build the whole picture.”
“I don't have the whole picture.”
“Then tell me what you do have.”
He took a breath.
“Before I married Mallory, my company was negotiating a major contract.”
I listened.
“One of the competing firms wanted access to our pricing information.”
“Trade secrets.”
“Exactly.”
“Did they get them?”
“Somebody did.”
“When?”
“After Mallory came into my life.”
My pulse quickened.
“And the documents?”
“Contained evidence of the leak.”
“Who had access?”
“Me. My partner. Two senior employees.”
“Mallory?”
“Eventually.”
“And me?”
“You were never supposed to.”
I looked up.
“Why was my divorce paperwork in the same folder?”
“Because some of those documents were connected to a lawsuit involving the company.”
I remembered something from years ago.
Colin had once asked me to keep a sealed envelope for him.
He'd never explained why.
I'd forgotten about it.
Now I wondered whether that was the same envelope.
“Is that what they're looking for?”
“Maybe.”
“What is it?”
He hesitated.
“A record of a payment.”
“To whom?”
“Mallory.”
I stared at him.
The room seemed to tilt.
“Your wife was paid by someone.”
“Yes.”
“And the payment is documented.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you give it to the police?”
“Because I needed to know who authorized it.”
I closed my eyes.
This was no longer a family dispute.
It was a conspiracy that had somehow wrapped itself around our divorce, our daughter, my home, and Colin's business.
Then my phone rang.
Brynn.
I answered immediately.
“Mom?”
“Brynn, are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Lock the doors.”
“They're locked.”
“Don't open them for anyone.”
She went quiet.
Then she said, “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“There was a car outside.”
My heart stopped.
“What car?”
“I don't know.”
“Where is it now?”
“Gone.”
“Did you see who was inside?”
“No.”
Colin was already grabbing his keys.
“Stay in your room,” I told her.
“Okay.”
“Call me if anything changes.”
“I will.”
I hung up.
“We're going back.”
Colin nodded.
Neither of us spoke during the drive.
When we reached my house, the street looked exactly as it had when we'd left.
But the front door was open.
I stopped walking.
“I locked that.”
Colin moved ahead.
“Stay behind me.”
We entered.
Nothing looked disturbed.
The living room was untouched.
The kitchen was untouched.
Then we reached the hallway.
My bedroom door stood open.
I had left it closed.
Colin stepped inside.
The drawer was open.
The one from the photograph.
I rushed toward it.
Empty.
The folder was gone.
I turned to him.
“They took it.”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he walked to the window.
There was a small white envelope sitting on the sill.
He picked it up.
Inside was a photograph.
Mallory.
Standing beside a man.
I didn't recognize him.
Behind them was Colin's office.
The photograph had been taken from a distance.
Underneath it were seven words:
Now you know where to look.
Colin's face changed.
“I know him.”
“Who?”
He swallowed.
“Ethan.”
“Your former partner?”
He nodded.
“But that doesn't make sense.”
“Why?”
“Because Ethan has been out of state for almost a year.”
I looked at the photograph again.
“Then why is he standing beside Mallory?”
Colin didn't answer.
Behind us, Brynn appeared at the doorway.
She looked frightened.
“Mom?”
I turned.
She held her phone in both hands.
“What happened?”
She showed me the screen.
A new message.
No number.
No name.
Only a photograph.
It showed Mallory and Ethan entering a building.
The date was from that morning.
I looked at Colin.
His face had gone pale.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Ethan called me last week.”
“And?”
“He told me he was afraid.”
“Of what?”
Colin stared at the photograph.
“He said somebody was forcing him to keep quiet.”
I felt cold.
“Who?”
“He wouldn't say.”
Brynn whispered, “Was it Mallory?”
Colin looked at her.
“I don't know.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“She told me something.”
“When?”
“The night she gave me the money.”
I stepped closer.
“What did she say?”
Brynn's eyes filled.
“She said if I wanted everything to stop, I had to help her.”
“How?”
“She wanted me to tell her where you kept the folder.”
My chest tightened.
“And did you?”
“No.”
I pulled her into my arms.
She buried her face against me.
“I didn't know what she wanted it for.”
“I know.”
“I swear.”
“I believe you.”
Colin stood a few feet away, staring at the floor.
Then he said something that changed the entire shape of the night.
“Mallory didn't marry me because she loved me.”
I looked at him.
“What are you saying?”
He swallowed.
“She married me because someone paid her to get close to my family.”
Brynn lifted her head.
“Who paid her?”
Colin looked at the photograph.
“That is what I don't know.”
“And the person behind this?”
He nodded.
“They know what's in that folder.”
“Then why make Brynn get fillers?”
He looked at our daughter.
“Because they needed a distraction.”
I understood.
The bullying.
The messages.
The money.
The procedure.
Everything had been designed to make us look in one direction.
While someone searched in another.
Colin's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
No caller ID.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then a man's voice came through.
Low.
Calm.
“Colin.”
He froze.
“Who is this?”
The caller laughed softly.
“You've had enough time.”
“For what?”
“To remember where you put the original.”
Colin looked at me.
I could see fear in his eyes.
“What original?” I whispered.
The caller continued.
“Ask your ex-wife.”
Then the line went dead.
Colin lowered the phone.
I stared at him.
“What original?”
He didn't answer.
“Colin.”
He looked at me.
“The original isn't in the missing folder.”
“Then where is it?”
His eyes moved toward me.
“You kept it.”
I felt the room go silent.
“I did what?”
“You kept the envelope I gave you before we divorced.”
The memory returned.
A sealed envelope.
His handwriting.
My old bedroom.
A promise that I would never open it unless he told me to.
I had forgotten it existed.
Until now.
“It was hidden in the house.”
“Where?”
He looked toward the floor beneath my desk.
“I don't know.”
Then Brynn whispered, “Mom.”
I turned.
She was pointing at the bottom drawer.
A small corner of white paper was visible beneath the wood.
I pulled the drawer completely open.
There it was.
The envelope.
Still sealed.
Still bearing Colin's handwriting.
And suddenly I understood why someone had been watching our house.
They weren't looking for the folder.
They were looking for this.
I held it in my hands.
Colin stared at it.
“Don't open it.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because once you do, there's no going back.”
I looked at Brynn.
Then at the photograph of Mallory and Ethan.
Then at the sealed envelope that had somehow survived our divorce.
Someone had spent months trying to find it.
Someone had used my daughter to get close to it.
And now it was finally in my hands.
I broke the seal.
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Click here to continue reading: PART 5: The Envelope Held a Secret From Our Marriage, and Reading It Forced Me to Question the Man I Had Once Trusted Most
My Daughter Came Home Hiding Her Face, and One Sentence About Her Father’s New Wife Changed Everything I Thought I Knew
Part 4 of 20
