Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE FILE
The next morning, Detective Morgan returned.
This time she wasn't alone.
A woman stood beside her.
She was probably in her early thirties, wearing a dark blue coat and holding a folder against her chest.
“This is Emily Carter,” Detective Morgan said.
Emily gave me a nervous smile.
“Hi, Clover.”
I frowned.
“Do I know you?”
“No.”
She looked down.
“But I know Luke.”
The room suddenly felt colder.
“How?”
Emily sat in the chair.
“He worked with my husband.”
My heart started beating faster.
“Worked?”
“Two years ago.”
Daniel stood near the window.
“Emily contacted us after seeing the police report.”
“What did she know?”
She opened the folder.
“I knew Luke wasn't what he appeared to be.”
She pulled out several photographs.
The first showed Luke standing beside another woman.
The second showed him outside a bank.
The third showed him carrying boxes from a storage facility.
My hands became numb.
“What am I looking at?”
“Evidence from a case involving my husband.”
Emily took a breath.
“My husband, Thomas, was Luke's business partner.”
“Was?”
“Until Luke blamed him for financial irregularities.”
My eyebrows drew together.
“What kind?”
“Missing money.”
She slid a document toward me.
“Thomas spent six months fighting charges.”
I stared at the numbers.
Millions of dollars.
My husband had never told me about any of this.
Emily continued.
“Eventually, the charges were dropped.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas found evidence that Luke had moved money through several shell companies.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“And the companies?”
Emily looked at him.
“They were connected to Celina.”
My blood went cold.
“My mother-in-law?”
“Yes.”
She opened another folder.
“This is where things get worse.”
Inside was a photograph of a woman I didn't recognize.
A young woman.
Beautiful.
Blonde.
Smiling.
On the back was a date.
Five years earlier.
“Who is she?”
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
“My sister.”
I looked at her.
“She dated Luke before you.”
My heart stopped.
“Before me?”
“Yes.”
Emily's voice shook.
“She disappeared.”
Silence filled the room.
I couldn't move.
“Disappeared how?”
“She left town suddenly.”
“Did she run away?”
“We thought so.”
Emily looked at Detective Morgan.
“Until yesterday.”
Detective Morgan placed a file on my bed.
“We found her name in Luke's old records.”
I stared at it.
“What does that mean?”
“It means we're reopening the case.”
My fingers curled around the blanket.
“How long?”
“Five years.”
A terrible realization began forming.
Luke had been doing this before me.
Maybe long before me.
Emily reached into her bag and pulled out a small flash drive.
“My sister's name was Lauren.”
She placed it beside the smartwatch.
“She sent this to me the night before she disappeared.”
I looked at the drive.
“What is on it?”
Emily whispered.
“A recording of Luke.”
I looked at Daniel.
He nodded.
“We'll have forensic specialists examine it.”
I stared at Emily.
“Why didn't you come forward earlier?”
Her face crumpled.
“Because I was scared.”
I understood.
More than she knew.
Fear had a way of making people quiet.
It convinced you that silence was survival.
Until someone else got hurt.
Emily wiped her eyes.
“My sister told me something before she disappeared.”
“What?”
“She said Luke had a plan.”
My stomach twisted.
“What plan?”
Emily looked directly at me.
“He didn't marry women.”
She paused.
“He acquired them.”
The words hit harder than any accusation.
I thought about my marriage.
The bank accounts.
The documents.
The appointments.
The isolation.
The way Luke had slowly convinced me that my friends were bad influences.
The way Celina criticized every decision I made.
The way Luke had gradually taken control of everything.
Emily's voice broke.
“He finds women with stable careers and good credit. He gains their trust. Then he isolates them.”
Daniel's expression became grim.
“What happened to Lauren's finances?”
“She lost everything.”
I closed my eyes.
Suddenly, the eighty-four thousand dollars made sense.
This wasn't about money alone.
It was a pattern.
A system.
A business model disguised as marriage.
Detective Morgan stood.
“We need to ask you something.”
I opened my eyes.
“What?”
“Did Luke ever mention a woman named Lauren?”
I thought.
Nothing.
Then suddenly—
A memory.
A drawer.
A photograph.
A few months after our wedding, I had found an old picture hidden inside Luke's desk.
I had asked him who the woman was.
He had taken it from my hand.
“Someone from the past.”
I remembered his exact words.
“Forget her.”
My blood turned cold.
“I've seen her.”
Emily leaned forward.
“Where?”
“Inside Luke's desk.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
Detective Morgan's eyes sharpened.
“What did he say?”
I swallowed.
“He told me to forget her.”
The detective exchanged a glance with Daniel.
Then she said something that made my heart stop.
“Clover, Lauren Carter didn't disappear because she wanted to.”
I stared at her.
“What are you saying?”
Detective Morgan closed the folder.
“We found human remains this morning.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“Where?”
“At an abandoned property owned by one of Luke's shell companies.”
My mother gasped.
I couldn't breathe.
Then Detective Morgan added:
“And there was something buried beside the remains.”
“What?”
“A wedding ring.”
May you like
I looked down at my own hand.
The ring Luke had placed there seven years earlier suddenly felt like a chain.
