Chapter 14 - The Search
The search lasted six hours.
I was not there.
Claire insisted on that.
By evening, Detective Lewis asked me to come to the station.
She placed photographs on the table.
The hidden safe was empty.
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“We saw everything two days ago.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel had returned to the house after the court hearing.
The temporary order had not barred him from the property.
Somewhere between our discovery and the warrant, he had removed almost everything.
Cash.
Phones.
Documents.
The ring.
The passports.
But he had missed something.
Detective Lewis pushed another photograph toward me.
A flash drive.
It had fallen behind the safe.
The label read:
2024 TAX.
It was not tax information.
It contained backups.
Hundreds of files.
Spreadsheets.
Invoices.
Scans.
Emails.
Photographs.
And a document called EXIT PLAN.
My mouth went dry.
“What was in it?”
Detective Lewis opened a printed copy.
Daniel had created a timeline.
Sell investment assets.
Move funds through Carter Consulting.
Finalize insurance.
Book travel.
Close credit lines.
He had written notes beside each item.
Most were financial.
Then there was my name.
JENNIFER — settlement or leverage.
“Leverage?”
Detective Lewis turned the page.
There were references to private photographs.
Personal emails.
Medical records from my pregnancy.
Even therapy notes from three sessions I had attended after a miscarriage two years earlier.
I stared at the page.
“How did he get those?”
“We’re investigating.”
I felt violated in a way the affair had never achieved.
Daniel had apparently collected pieces of my most private life to use if I fought him.
Detective Lewis pointed to another line.
If custody becomes issue — mental health angle.
I laughed once.
It sounded empty.
“I went to therapy three times after losing a pregnancy.”
“I’m aware.”
“And he planned to use that to say I’m unstable?”
“It appears so.”
I thought of his words at the baptism.
Tired.
Emotional.
Confused.
They were not spontaneous.
They were rehearsal.
Detective Lewis closed the file.
“There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
“A payment was made to a private investigator.”
“For what?”
“You.”
My stomach dropped.
“Daniel had someone following me?”
“For at least six weeks.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I did.
He wanted photographs.
Something that looked compromising.
Something he could use in court.
“Who was the investigator?”
Detective Lewis told me.
The name meant nothing.
Then she slid over a photograph recovered from the drive.
It showed me leaving work with Michael Grant.
My regional director.
The same man Daniel had suggested might be Lily’s father.
We were standing outside a restaurant after a company dinner.
Michael’s hand was on my shoulder.
In the cropped image, it looked intimate.
I remembered the actual moment.
I had nearly slipped on wet pavement.
Michael had steadied me.
Daniel had not invented his accusation at the courthouse.
He had manufactured evidence for it months earlier.
Then Detective Lewis showed me the uncropped photograph.
Standing three feet away was Michael’s wife.
Daniel had deliberately removed her from the image.
I looked at the detective.
“What happens now?”
May you like
She answered carefully.
“Now your husband has a much bigger problem than adultery.”
