Chapter 5: The Name I Didn't Expect
The message thread Paulson slid across the table was printed on three pages.
The sender was Terrence Aldwell.
The recipient's name at the top of the chain made the air go out of the room.
Daniel Foss.
My brother-in-law.
Hailey's husband.
The one person in Brandon's family I had always considered neutral — the quiet one who showed up to holidays, helped carry things, never said much.
Daniel, who had texted me two weeks ago asking how work was going.
"How long has he been in contact with Aldwell?" I said.
"Based on the metadata, the first message was sent five months ago." Paulson kept his voice level.
"He appears to have introduced Aldwell to your husband.
The initial message reads: *'My brother needs help moving an asset without his wife's involvement.
You've done this before.
Can we talk?'"*
Grace put her hand flat on the table.
I looked at the words again.
*Moving an asset.* That was me.
My house.
My name on a deed.
Reduced to an asset to be moved.
"Daniel was the one who brought Aldwell in," I said.
"That's what the record suggests."
I thought about every time Daniel had been in my home.
Every time he'd sat at my kitchen table.
Every time he'd asked Skylar how school was going and ruffled her hair on the way out.
"He knew about Skylar," I said.
Not to Paulson.
Not to Grace.
Just out loud, because I needed to hear it.
Grace looked at me carefully.
"Charlotte."
"He knew what they were doing to her.
He knew she was being kept separate from the family meals.
He knew everything and he said nothing."
"I know," Grace said.
"He texted me two weeks ago asking how I was doing."
Neither of them answered that.
Paulson gathered the pages.
"We'll be looking at Daniel Aldwell's role as a potential co-conspirator.
That's not your concern right now.
What I need from you is a formal statement, which we'll complete this week, and your authorization to subpoena the Meridian Capital records directly."
"You have it," I said.
I drove back to the hotel in silence.
Skylar was with my colleague Renata, who had picked her up without asking a single unnecessary question and taken her to the park.
When I called to check in, I could hear Skylar laughing in the background.
That sound held me together for the rest of the afternoon.
At six o'clock, Brandon called again.
I had ignored forty-one calls in two days.
This time, I answered.
"Charlotte." His voice was careful.
Controlled.
The voice he used when he wanted something.
"I need you to come home so we can talk about this like adults."
"I'm listening," I said.
"Talk."
A pause.
He hadn't expected that.
"Not on the phone.
Come home."
"I'm not coming home, Brandon.
If you have something to say, say it now."
Another pause.
Longer this time.
"The cards, Char.
You've cut off the whole household.
My mother can't buy groceries.
Hailey's car payment —"
"Is not my responsibility."
"You're being —"
"Careful," I said.
"I'm being careful."
Silence.
Then his voice shifted.
The control slipped just slightly, and underneath it was something harder.
"You have no idea what you're starting.
You think you can just freeze everything and walk away?
There are legal agreements, Charlotte.
There are things you signed."
"I know exactly what I signed," I said.
"Do you?"
He didn't answer.
"I'll be in touch through my lawyer," I said.
"Don't call this number again."
I ended the call and sat with the phone in my lap.
He had said *things you signed.* Not *things we agreed to.* Not *our finances.* He had said it like a threat, and threats only work when the other person doesn't already know what's coming.
May you like
I knew what was coming.
What I didn't know was that Brandon had made a move that same evening — one that was designed to take Skylar out of my hands entirely.
