Chapter 2: What He Found in the Dark
Derek came back to an empty apartment.
I know because my neighbor Rosa called me while I was still in the parking lot with the officers.
"Skylar, he's inside.
He's going through everything."
My stomach dropped.
The shoebox.
Rosa called back four minutes later.
Her voice was different.
"He found something.
He's just…
standing there.
He hasn't moved.
Skylar, what was in that box?"
I couldn't answer her.
What was in that box was the one thing Derek never knew existed.
The one thing I kept hidden for two years because I didn't know what to do with it.
A document.
A name.
And a photograph that proved Derek's "charming insurance salesman" life was built on something he never told me.
Twenty minutes later, my phone rang.
Derek.
I let it ring.
Then a text came through: *"Where did you get that?
You had no right.
You don't understand what that is."*
Then another: *"Skylar.
Pick up.
This is not what you think."*
Then one final message that made my hands go cold:
*"If you show that to anyone, you'll regret it."*
I screenshot all three.
Sent them straight to the officer beside me.
She read them.
Looked up.
"Does he know where you're going tonight?"
I shook my head.
She nodded slowly.
"Good.
Keep it that way."
---
What was in that shoebox — and why is Derek so desperate to bury it?
The full truth is darker than anyone expected.
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