Chapter 6: The Last Move
Ethan called Harlow at nine-fifteen that evening.
Harlow called the DA's office at nine-twenty.
By ten o'clock, a financial hold had been placed on Margaret Calloway's primary accounts, her investment portfolio, and the trust she had begun restructuring three hours earlier.
Gerald Fitch learned about the hold at ten-forty, when his own firm's banking contact called to tell him the transfer had been flagged and frozen.
He called Margaret immediately.
Ethan knew this because Dennis Albright, the paralegal who had warned him, called back an hour later.
"She told Fitch to find another way," Albright said.
"He told her there wasn't one.
She told him to find it anyway."
"Why are you telling me this?" Ethan asked.
A pause.
"I've worked at that firm for eleven years," Albright said.
"I've done things I'm not proud of because I told myself it was just paperwork.
It's not just paperwork." Another pause.
"I have a daughter about your wife's age."
Ethan thanked him and wrote down everything.
The next morning, he drove to the hospital before visiting hours officially began.
The nurse at the desk recognized him by now and waved him through.
Ava was awake.
She'd been awake for a while, he could tell — her hair was brushed and she was sitting up with a notepad in her lap, writing something in small, careful letters.
"You're writing," he said.
She looked up.
"I used to write every morning.
Before the crash.
Before everything." She looked at the notepad.
"I woke up at five and I just — started.
I didn't plan to."
He sat down.
"She tried to move the money last night."
Ava set the pen down.
He told her everything — Albright, the hold, Fitch's call, Margaret's response.
When he finished, Ava was quiet for a moment.
"She's not going to stop," she said.
"Not until she has no moves left."
"She's almost out of moves."
"Almost isn't the same as none." Ava looked at him.
"What about the account she mentioned?
The one in your name?"
"Harlow's team found it.
It was opened eighteen months ago with a forged signature.
She deposited money into it in small amounts — below the reporting threshold — and made two withdrawals that she apparently planned to point to if she ever needed to implicate me."
Ava stared at him.
"She built a trap for you," she said.
"In case you ever turned against her."
"Yes."
"She's been planning every exit for years."
"Yes."
Ava picked up her pen again.
She didn't write anything.
She just held it.
"Ethan.
Did you ever — before all of this — did you ever see it?
Any of it?"
He didn't answer immediately.
"I saw that she didn't like you," he said finally.
"I told myself it was just her way.
That she was difficult with everyone." He paused.
"I didn't want to see more than that."
"I know."
"That's not an excuse."
"I know that too." She looked at him steadily.
"I'm not asking you to apologize again.
I'm asking because I need to understand what we're building from here.
What's real and what I was wrong about."
"You weren't wrong about me."
"I need to know that."
"I know you do." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"I should have looked harder.
I should have asked more questions when you started forgetting things.
I should have questioned the vitamins, questioned her access, questioned—" He stopped.
"I failed you.
In the specific, practical ways that mattered.
And I'm going to spend a long time making that right."
Ava looked at him for a long moment.
Then she handed him the notepad.
At the top of the page, in her small careful letters, she had written two words.
*I stayed.*
"That's what I was writing about," she said.
"All the mornings I thought about leaving.
All the times I thought I was going crazy and maybe she was right, maybe I didn't belong there." Her voice was quiet but it didn't waver.
"I stayed because I loved you.
Not the house.
Not the money.
You."
Ethan looked at the two words for a long time.
He set the notepad back in her lap.
"Then let's make sure what comes next is worth staying for," he said.
His phone buzzed.
It was Harlow.
"She's agreed to come in for formal questioning tomorrow morning," Harlow said.
"Her attorney negotiated the terms.
She'll be accompanied by counsel."
"And the asset freeze?"
"Remains in place until the investigation concludes." A pause.
"Ethan.
Bring everything you have.
The recordings from the office.
The pill bottle.
May you like
Whatever Lena can provide in writing." Another pause.
"And bring your wife."
