Chapter 5: The Account
The balance in our joint savings account was $214.
Three weeks ago it had been $31,000.
I sat very still looking at the screen.
The transaction history loaded slowly, line by line.
Fourteen transfers over the past twenty-two days.
Each one to a company name I didn't recognize.
Threshold Capital Group.
I scrolled back to the top and read it again.
Then a third time.
Vanessa was still on the phone.
I'd forgotten I was holding it.
"It's gone," I said.
"Thirty-one thousand dollars."
She didn't say anything for a moment.
Then: "I'm sorry."
"He started moving it the day after the proposal."
"He needed you committed before you could react." Her voice was very quiet.
"That's why the proposal happened when it did.
That's why he wanted you on the phone during the drive — so you'd be emotional, so you'd say yes immediately, so the ring would be on your finger before you had time to think."
I set the laptop on the table and stood up.
Walked to the window.
The street below was empty.
"He planned all of it," I said.
"Yes."
"The billboard.
The restaurant.
The ring.
All of it was designed to make me say yes fast."
"Yes."
I pressed my hand flat against the cold glass.
"Vanessa, the company name — Threshold Capital Group.
Does that mean anything to you?"
A pause.
"No.
He used a different name when he took mine.
But the structure sounds the same."
"I need to find out who owns it."
"Do you have a lawyer?
Someone you trust?"
"My sister's husband is an attorney.
Corporate law, but —"
"Call him tonight," she said.
"Don't wait until morning.
Don't let Myles know you've seen the account.
Don't react when you see him next.
Just act normal and call your brother-in-law tonight."
I turned away from the window.
"Why are you helping me?" I asked.
"You could have stayed hidden.
You were safe."
She was quiet for a long moment.
"Because I wasn't safe.
I was just invisible.
There's a difference." Another pause.
"And because if someone had called me before I said yes, I would have had a chance.
You deserve that chance."
I looked at the ring one more time.
Then I pulled it off my finger and set it on the kitchen table.
It sat there catching the light, beautiful and completely hollow.
"I'll call my brother-in-law now," I said.
"Good." A breath.
"One more thing.
Derek — he has copies of some of the documents from my case.
He kept them.
He never stopped trying to build something that could be used." She paused.
"He was waiting for Myles to do it again.
He knew he would."
My throat tightened.
"He was waiting for the next woman."
"He was waiting for someone who would fight back," Vanessa said.
"I think that's you."
After I hung up, I stood in the kitchen for a moment.
The ring was still on the table.
I left it there and picked up my phone to call my brother-in-law, Paul.
He answered on the third ring, voice thick with sleep.
"It's me," I said.
"I'm sorry to call this late.
I need your help.
Something's happened and I don't have much time."
May you like
A rustling.
Then his voice, fully awake: "Talk to me."
