Chapter 7: Sandra Marsh Picks Up on the First Ring
She answered immediately, as if she had been holding the phone.
"Mr.
Voss?" Her voice was steady but tight, like a wire pulled close to its limit.
"Yes.
Adrian Voss.
You left your card with my mother's attorney."
"I've been hoping you'd call for a long time." A breath.
"Is she still in your house?"
"Yes."
"Then we need to move quickly.
She doesn't stay once she knows she's been found out.
She disappears and she takes what she can carry."
Adrian stepped out of the elevator into the lobby.
"What did she take from your father?"
"Everything." A pause.
"His savings.
His property.
His last year.
He spent it isolated from me, from his friends, from anyone who might have helped him see what she was doing.
By the time he d*ed, he thought I hated him." Her voice cracked on the last word, then steadied.
"I need you to know that so you understand what she's capable of."
"I have children with her."
"I know.
That's why I'm talking to you." She paused again.
"Mr.
Voss, I have evidence your attorney didn't have access to.
Text messages between Vanessa and a man named Garrett Cole.
I obtained them through my own legal proceedings — my attorney can speak to their admissibility.
In those messages, she discusses your estate.
Your assets.
The timeline."
Adrian stopped walking.
"What timeline?"
Sandra's voice dropped slightly.
"She refers to a window.
A period she's been planning toward.
According to those messages, that window opens in approximately three weeks."
The lobby doors were open in front of him.
Morning light came through.
"Three weeks from when?" he said.
"From when she sent the message.
That was two weeks ago."
One week.
She had given herself one more week.
"What do I do?" he said.
"First — don't go home and confront her.
Not yet.
She'll run.
Or she'll do something to make you look unstable before you can act." Sandra's voice was careful and practiced, like someone who had learned these things the hard way.
"You need a family law attorney today.
Not tomorrow.
Today.
You need your estate documents reviewed and locked.
And you need someone watching your children who isn't connected to her in any way."
"Mrs.
Patel is with them now."
"Good.
Keep her there." A pause.
"There's one more thing."
"Tell me."
"The doghouse," Sandra said quietly.
"She did the same thing to my father's dog.
She used it as a way to test how far she could go.
To see what she could do without consequences." Her voice was flat and certain.
"She wasn't punishing your children, Mr.
Voss.
She was measuring you."
Adrian stood on the pavement outside Hargrove's building.
The morning traffic moved past him.
Normal.
Unhurried.
"Send me the messages," he said.
"Already done.
Check your email." A pause.
"Mr.
Voss — don't wait.
She's done waiting."
He ended the call and opened his email.
May you like
The messages were there.
He read the first line of the first one and felt the ground shift under everything he thought he had known.
