Chapter 5: What Miriam Kept
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Forty minutes from that house," Miriam said.
"I know the address.
I know the layout.
I know which room they put you in."
A chill moved across the back of my neck.
"The bedroom at the end of the hall," I said.
"Second floor."
"With the lock that only opens from the outside." A pause.
"Except it doesn't anymore, does it."
"No," I said.
"It doesn't."
A short silence.
Then something that might have been a breath of relief.
"Good," she said.
"You're smarter than I was."
I sat down in the chair by the study desk.
Outside the closed door I could hear the brunch resuming — glasses, low voices, someone laughing at something that wasn't funny.
"Tell me what you have," I said.
"Bank records," Miriam said.
"From our joint account.
Derek transferred $310,000 out of it in the four months before he filed for annulment.
Small amounts.
Different accounts.
All traceable if you know where to look."
"Do you have documentation?"
"I have screenshots, statements, and a letter from a forensic accountant I hired after the annulment.
He told me I had a case.
But Derek's family has a lawyer who made it very clear what would happen if I pursued it."
"What did he threaten?"
"My sister works in property development," Miriam said.
"They told me a complaint would be filed against her license.
Anonymous.
Impossible to disprove." A pause.
"I believed them.
I shouldn't have.
But I was alone and I was exhausted and I just wanted it to be over."
I understood that.
I understood it completely.
"What else?" I said.
"There's a woman named Carol Fitch," Miriam said.
"She was between me and you.
He didn't marry her — she walked away before it got that far.
But she has records too.
Financial records.
And something else."
"What?"
"A recording," Miriam said.
"From a dinner at the Hale estate.
Derek and his mother, talking about the plan.
She didn't know she was recording it at first — her phone was in her bag and she'd accidentally hit the button.
But when she listened back she kept it."
My pulse was steady.
Deliberate.
"Can she be reached?" I asked.
"I'll send you her number," Miriam said.
"But Chloe — I need you to understand something before you decide what to do next."
"Tell me."
"Derek is not the most dangerous person in that house."
I already knew the answer.
But I asked anyway.
"Brenda," I said.
"Brenda found the women," Miriam said.
"Brenda ran the background checks.
Brenda identified which ones had assets, which ones had family connections, which ones could be useful.
Derek executed the plan.
But she built it."
The laughing from the other room had stopped.
I heard footsteps in the corridor.
They slowed outside the study door.
"I have to go," I said quietly.
"Call Carol," Miriam said.
"And Chloe — don't let them know you've spoken to me.
Not yet.
Not until you have everything."
"I won't."
I ended the call and set the phone face-down on the desk just as the door opened.
It was Brenda.
She looked at the phone.
Then at me.
"Everything all right?" she said.
"Fine," I said.
"Just calling my mother."
Brenda's eyes stayed on me for a moment longer than they needed to.
"Your mother," she repeated.
"Of course." She smiled.
"Come back to the brunch, Chloe.
People are asking for you."
She held the door open.
I stood up, smoothed my dress, and walked past her into the corridor.
Her perfume was heavy and sweet.
I didn't look back at her.
May you like
But I heard her pick up my phone from the desk.
And I heard her set it back down.
