Chapter 3 - THE WIFE WHO HAD ALREADY MOVED ON
Teresa had worn her wedding ring through everything.
Our first apartment.
The birth of Chloe.
My father's funeral.
The year my company nearly collapsed.
She used to joke that she'd have to be buried with it because her knuckles had changed after pregnancy.
Now it was gone.
I noticed the pale indentation on her finger.
“Where's your ring?”
She glanced down.
“Oh. I took it off to have it cleaned.”
“Where?”
“The jeweler.”
“Which one?”
She laughed.
“Dominic, are you interrogating me?”
I smiled.
“Just asking.”
Her expression cooled.
“You've been strange lately.”
I thought about the garbage bags.
The trust amendment.
The warrant message.
The meetings with Martin.
Then I said, “Maybe I'm tired.”
She touched my arm.
“You need to relax.”
I looked at her hand.
For the first time in fourteen years, her touch made me uneasy.
The next morning, Daniel called with news.
Red Mesa Capital had filed preliminary documents to acquire three Salazar Freight terminals.
The filings identified Martin Keene as the company's authorized representative.
They also included a letter indicating that I supported the transaction.
I hadn't signed it.
Daniel sent me a copy.
The signature resembled mine.
But the final stroke was wrong.
I had broken my right wrist at seventeen.
Since then, my signature always ended with a slight upward hook.
This one didn't.
“Forgery,” I said.
“Possibly,” Daniel replied. “We'll need an examiner.”
“Who filed it?”
“Martin's office.”
I closed my eyes.
At noon, I met with an independent forensic accountant named Evelyn Shaw.
She had spent twenty years tracing corporate fraud.
She wasn't impressed by my reputation.
That was one reason Daniel trusted her.
She studied the documents.
Then looked at me.
“Mr. Salazar, I need complete access to your company's legitimate financial records.”
“You'll have it.”
“And I need you to tell me whether any company funds have been used for illegal activities.”
I stared.
She didn't blink.
I looked at Daniel.
He said nothing.
Finally, I answered.
“There have been transactions I'm not proud of.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Then we need to understand them before anyone else uses them against you.”
For the next three hours, I told them things I'd spent years avoiding.
Cash payments to questionable security contractors.
Freight arrangements made without proper scrutiny.
Deals I had justified as necessary to keep competitors away.
I didn't confess to crimes I hadn't committed.
But I stopped pretending every decision I'd made was clean.
Daniel listened without interrupting.
When I finished, he said, “This may become difficult.”
I nodded.
“I know.”
That evening, Teresa left the house at seven.
She said she was meeting her sister.
Teresa didn't have a sister.
She had a cousin named Melissa.
And Melissa lived in Phoenix.
I waited until she drove away.
Then I called Daniel.
“She lied about where she's going.”
“Don't follow her.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
That wasn't entirely true.
But I was learning.
Instead, I checked the household security system.
Not Teresa's private messages.
Not her personal accounts.
Just the exterior cameras on property I owned.
At 7:12 p.m., her car left the driveway.
At 7:16, another vehicle entered.
A black Mercedes.
I recognized the license plate.
Martin Keene.
He parked near the side entrance.
A man stepped out.
Not Martin.
Calvin Rourke.
I stared at the screen.
Rourke approached the house carrying a leather briefcase.
He used a key to enter through the side door.
A key to my house.
My pulse slowed.
May you like
Because Teresa had left.
And the man trying to buy my company had just entered my home.
