Chapter 3 - The Audit of a Marriage
The following week, our house—the sprawling, expensive prison Derek had built in an upscale Connecticut suburb—looked like a ghost town.
Federal forensic accountants had seized all electronic equipment, bank accounts, and corporate assets belonging to Derek and Victoria. The locks had been changed, and yellow police tape stretched across the front office door.
I spent Tuesday morning packing my clothes into old cardboard boxes. I didn't want the designer dresses Derek had bought me to keep up appearances at charity galas. I didn't want the expensive jewelry, the monogrammed bags, or the luxury furniture. I packed my books, my running shoes, the small wooden jewelry box my grandmother had given me, and the yellow dress I had worn on my birthday.
As I carried a box out to the trunk of Dad’s sedan, the doorbell rang.
I paused, frowning. Nobody was supposed to be here. The house was under federal receivership.
I walked to the front door and peered through the frosted glass. Standing on the porch was a woman I hadn't seen in over three years.
It was Elena, Derek’s former executive assistant—the one who had suddenly resigned and vanished from the company overnight, leaving behind a brief, cryptic email about personal reasons.
I unlocked the door and pulled it open.
Elena looked older, her eyes shadowed with lingering trauma, but when she saw me, a profound sense of relief washed over her features.
“Lucy,” she breathed, her voice trembling. “Thank God. I saw the news about the federal raid. I... I had to come.”
“Elena?” I stepped back, holding the door open. “What are you doing here? How did you even get past the perimeter?”
“I showed my ID to the marshals. I told them I was a key witness in the financial probe,” she said, stepping inside the foyer. She looked around the empty, echoey hallway with a shudder of disgust. “I couldn't stay away once I knew Derek was finally locked up. Lucy... I am so sorry I never warned you.”
My chest tightened. “Warned me about what?”
Elena reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a worn, spiral-bound notebook. She laid it gently on the entryway table.
“About four years ago, before you and Derek got married, there was another woman,” Elena whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “Her name was Claire. She worked in marketing. She tried to expose Derek’s financial fraud to the board of directors. One night, she threatened to go to the federal prosecutor's office.”
My breath hitched. “What happened to her?”
“Derek pushed her down the back stairwell of the office building,” Elena said, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper. “Victoria helped him cover it up. They paid off the coroner, bribed a local detective, and ruled it an accidental fall due to intoxication. I saw the security footage, Lucy. I saw them delete it from the server. When I tried to quit, Derek threatened to destroy my family if I ever said a word.”
The world tilted on its axis.
I gripped the edge of the console table to keep from falling. All those years I thought I was just dealing with a cold, controlling husband who had anger issues. All those years I blamed myself for not being quiet enough, not being obedient enough, not walking on eggshells softly enough.
He wasn't just an abuser.
He was a murderer.
“Does my father know?” I choked out.
“Not yet,” Elena said, squeezing my hand tightly. “I brought the backup drive containing the deleted security logs from the office server. I smuggled it out the night I resigned. I hid it because I was too cowardice to come forward. But with Derek in federal custody, and Victoria talking to prosecutors to save her own skin... this will put them away for the rest of their lives.”
I looked down at the spiral notebook and the small flash drive resting beside it.
May you like
The man who had slapped me across the face on my thirty-second birthday—the man who had smiled while telling our guests he did it to calm me down—wasn't just going away for white-collar embezzlement.
He was going down for everything.
