Chapter 3: What Was Hidden in the Last Screenshot
Daniel set the tablet on the coffee table so I could see it.
The final screenshot wasn't part of the fake messages.
It was a text conversation.
Linda's number at the top.
The contact name below it: Margaret H.
The last message in the thread was dated four days ago.
*It's done.
He believes it.
She'll be gone by the weekend.*
My legs stopped working.
I sat down on the arm of the sofa without meaning to.
"Mom." Daniel's voice came out flat.
"Who is she?"
Linda lifted her chin.
"A friend."
"A friend helped you forge messages to destroy my wife's marriage."
"I did what I had to do." Her voice hardened.
"That woman has been pulling you away from this family since the day you married her.
You don't see it because you're too close."
"What family?" Daniel stepped toward her.
"You mean you.
You mean your access to this house and Chloe and my salary."
"Don't you dare speak to me like that."
"Then tell me who Margaret Holt is."
Linda's jaw tightened.
She looked at me instead of him.
The look on her face wasn't guilt.
It was calculation.
She was still deciding how much to give up.
I picked up the tablet.
I went back further in the thread.
Three months of messages.
I read the first one out loud.
"*She's on the deed.
That's the problem.
We need her gone before the refinance goes through.*" I looked up.
"What refinance, Linda?"
She said nothing.
I kept reading.
"*Daniel won't do it himself.
We have to make him think it's his idea.*"
Daniel took the tablet from my hands.
He read it himself.
His face didn't change expression, which was somehow worse than if it had.
Chloe had come down the last three stairs and was standing in the hallway.
I crossed to her and put my arm around her shoulders.
She leaned into me without a word.
"Sit down, Mom," Daniel said.
"I will not sit down in my own—"
"It's not your house." His voice didn't rise.
"Sit down."
Linda sat.
Daniel pulled up the browser on his phone.
He typed for a moment.
Then he turned the screen toward her.
It was a property records page.
Our address.
Two names on the deed.
Mine and his.
Not hers.
It had never been hers.
"So explain to me," he said, "why you've been telling Margaret Holt that you need me to refinance so you can get your name added."
The color left Linda's face.
"Because that was the plan, wasn't it?" He set the phone down.
"Get rid of Sarah.
Claim abandonment.
Push me toward someone you controlled.
Get your name on this house before I figured out what you were doing."
Linda's hands folded in her lap.
"You have no idea what I've sacrificed for you."
"Don't." His voice finally cracked.
Just slightly.
"Don't do that."
"Everything I did was for your future."
"You tried to take my daughter's mother away from her." He pointed at Chloe without looking at her.
"She's seven.
She watched you build fake evidence at the kitchen table and she carried it alone because she didn't know what else to do." He stopped.
"That's what you did for my future."
Linda looked at Chloe for the first time since this started.
Something moved across her face.
But she pressed her lips together and looked away.
I watched her choose, in real time, to feel nothing.
"I want to know everything about Margaret Holt," I said.
"Tonight."
Linda looked at me.
Her eyes were steady again.
Whatever had flickered was gone.
"You won't find anything," she said quietly.
"She's careful."
May you like
It wasn't a warning.
It was a dare.
