Chapter 4
Ruby sat on the far end of Tasha’s couch, knees tucked under her chin, while a cartoon dog bounced across the television. She hadn’t looked up once.
I sat at the kitchen table with Tasha’s laptop open in front of me. The insurer’s website asked me to confirm my identity. My fingers hovered over the keys.
“Do you want me to sit with you?” Tasha asked.
I nodded. She pulled out the chair beside me, close but not crowding.
The account page loaded. My name appeared at the top, along with a list of policies I barely remembered seeing. I clicked the one marked LIFE.
The coverage amount made me stop breathing for a second.
It had more than tripled.
I read it again, then looked for the beneficiary. Eric’s name was there, in bold black letters, as if the screen were proud of itself.
Tasha’s chair scraped against the floor. “What is it?”
I turned the laptop toward her.
She read the amount and pressed her lips together. “Did you ask for this?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer sounded weak. I hated that. I hated that Eric had left me with a signature somewhere in a stack of papers, and a mind full of doubt about what I’d agreed to.
I opened the policy history. The increase had taken effect the same day Eric brought home the forms and pointed to the lines where he wanted me to sign.
There it was: a date I remembered because Ruby had spilled juice at breakfast, and Eric had laughed while I mopped it up. Ordinary details, bright and useless. I had signed where he pointed while he talked about the mortgage.
“I thought it was a coverage update,” I said. “That’s what he told me.”
Tasha’s hand settled on the table beside mine. “You were trusting your husband. He used that.”
Ruby had turned away from the cartoon. She was watching us now.
“Is Dad getting money?” she asked.
I closed the laptop halfway, not because I wanted to hide the truth from her, but because she was eight and the number on that screen was too large to make sense of.
“There’s a policy,” I said carefully. “It says Dad would receive money if something happened to me.”
Ruby’s face tightened. “But you’re not going to let anything happen.”
“No.” I reached for her hand. “I’m going to keep you safe.”
She slid off the couch and came to my side. Her fingers were cool against mine. I held on, feeling the weight of the signature I couldn’t remember and the choice I could still make now: believe what I’d been told, or look at what was in front of me.
My phone rang.
Sergeant Price’s name showed on the screen.
“Did you find the contractor?” I asked as soon as I answered.
“We did,” he said. “The SUV is registered to a local heating contractor named Cal. He’s done work at your house recently.”
Ruby’s hand tightened around mine.
“Is he the person who went inside?”
“We can’t confirm that yet. The still is consistent with the vehicle, but we’re following up. For now, I want you and Ruby to stay put.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I glanced at the laptop. “I found something else. Eric increased my life insurance about a month ago. He’s the beneficiary. The effective date matches the day he had me sign those forms.”
Price went quiet for a beat.
“Can you save what you found?”
“I can take screenshots.”
“Do that, and send them to me. Don’t call Eric about it.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
The sharpness in my voice surprised me. Maybe Price heard it, because his answer softened.
“Good. This is useful, but don’t let it pull you into a confrontation before we know more.”
I looked at Ruby, who had pressed her shoulder against my arm as if she could hold me in place.
“I understand.”
After the call, I saved the policy page and the change history. I didn’t understand every line, and I didn’t need to. Eric had told me the forms were about the house. The insurer’s account showed what they had done.
My phone buzzed before I could send the screenshots.
A text from Vanessa.
I have the phone. We need to meet before Eric finds me.
For a moment, I couldn’t move.
The black phone from beneath Ruby’s mattress. The one Vanessa had taken from our house while we watched through a camera. I read the message again, searching for a reason to trust it and finding none.
Tasha leaned close enough to see the screen. Her expression changed.
“Do you want me to call Price?” she asked.
I nodded and began attaching the screenshots, but my eyes kept returning to Vanessa’s message.
“What phone?” Ruby asked.
I turned the screen away. “Something Aunt Vanessa took from the house.”
“Is she helping Dad?”
“I don’t know.”
That was the honest answer, and it was the one Ruby deserved, even if it left her with nothing solid to hold.
I sent the screenshots to Price, then typed a reply to Vanessa.
Why should I meet you?
The typing bubble appeared, disappeared, then appeared again.
Because I can prove what Eric did.
My throat tightened. I wanted to ask what she had known, why she’d gone into Ruby’s room, and why she had taken the phone without warning us. Instead, I wrote:
Where are you?
Her answer came almost immediately.
I can’t say yet. He’s already looking for the phone.
May you like
Tasha read the message over my shoulder. Ruby’s hand remained wrapped around mine, small and stubborn.
I stared at Vanessa’s words, feeling the room shrink around them. Eric had lied about the airport, the house, and the papers I’d signed. Now the one person who might know why was somewhere out there with the evidence—and he was searching for it.
