CHAPTER 3: THE WOMAN I MARRIED
The front door opened.
Marissa stepped inside carrying a small suitcase.
She stopped when she saw Detective Ortiz.
Then she noticed the papers spread across the table.
For half a second, her face changed.
The charming, wounded woman disappeared.
Something cold appeared underneath.
Then the mask returned.
“Daniel,” she said softly. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“My phone hasn’t rung.”
“You blocked me.”
“I didn’t.”
Her eyes moved toward the laptop.
“What are you doing with Eleanor’s private documents?”
Detective Ortiz stepped forward. “Mrs. Hail, we need to ask you some questions.”
“I’ve already answered questions.”
“These concern financial fraud, suspected poisoning, and forged documents.”
Marissa set down the suitcase.
“You cannot possibly believe her.”
“Believe who?” I asked. “My mother?”
“She is confused.”
“She recorded you.”
Silence filled the room.
I watched her calculate.
Not react.
Calculate.
“How much did you hear?” she asked.
“Enough.”
Marissa’s shoulders relaxed.
The performance was over.
“You were going to lose everything,” she said. “The company, the apartment, your reputation. I found a solution.”
“You destroyed the company.”
“I redirected money.”
“You sabotaged orders. You lied to clients.”
“I created a crisis you could survive.”
I could barely understand the sentence.
“You forced us into my mother’s house.”
“I needed access.”
Detective Ortiz’s voice hardened. “Access to her accounts?”
Marissa smiled faintly. “You already know the answer.”
I felt as if I were looking at a stranger wearing my wife’s face.
“Why the insurance policy?”
“To protect myself.”
“It names me.”
“Exactly.”
The meaning landed slowly.
If my mother died, the money would go to me.
The forged documents, the transfers, and the insurance policy would make me look responsible.
Marissa could claim she knew nothing.
If investigators looked deeper, they would find my login information, my electronic signature, and my failing company.
She had not only planned to kill my mother.
She had planned to bury me for it.
“You were going to frame me.”
“I was going to start over.”
“With what money?”
“The money you were going to inherit.”
I moved toward her, but Ortiz blocked me.
Marissa continued as though she were explaining a business decision.
“Your mother discovered the transfers. She became unpredictable. She threatened to call the bank. I needed her quiet until the house sale was complete.”
“The house sale?”
Marissa’s eyes flickered toward the table.
Detective Ortiz picked up a folder we had not opened yet.
Inside was a sales contract.
My mother’s house had been sold to a development company.
Closing was scheduled for Friday.
Three days away.
The sale price was $620,000.
The payment instructions directed the money to MH Property Solutions.
“You sold her home,” I said.
“She wasn’t going to live here much longer.”
The cruelty in her voice stole my breath.
Detective Ortiz instructed Marissa to turn around.
Marissa did not resist as she was handcuffed.
She only looked at me.
“You think Eleanor is innocent because she raised you,” she said. “Ask her what happened to your father.”
I stared at her.
“My father died in an accident.”
“That’s what she told you.”
Ortiz led Marissa outside.
Her final words followed me through the open door.
“Ask her why his car went off Mercy Bridge.”
For the first time that night, doubt entered my anger.
My father had died when I was seven.
My mother had always said it was raining and he lost control.
I remembered almost nothing except the funeral, the smell of lilies, and my mother holding my hand so tightly it hurt.
Detective Ortiz placed Marissa in the back of a patrol car.
Before the vehicle left, Ortiz returned to the porch.
“She’s trying to divide you and your mother.”
“What if she knows something?”
“People like your wife survive by making everyone doubt everyone else.”
My phone rang.
It was Mercy Hill Hospital.
Angela’s voice shook.
“Mr. Hail, someone tried to transfer your mother.”
“What do you mean?”
“A private medical transport team arrived with signed authorization. They said she was being moved to another facility.”
“Did she leave?”
“We stopped them because the paperwork looked wrong.”
Relief lasted less than a second.
Angela continued.
“But when security went downstairs to question the driver, he was gone.”
“Is my mother safe?”
There was a pause.
Then Angela said the words I will never forget.
“We’re checking every floor, Mr. Hail.”
May you like
“Why are you checking every floor?”
“Because your mother is no longer in room 218.”
