Chapter 6 - THE FILE WITH MY NAME
Police found Brooke's car forty minutes later.
Brooke was not inside it.
Her purse was on the passenger seat.
Her phone was gone.
The folder was gone too.
Ryan didn't answer.
Grant didn't answer.
Diane claimed she had no idea where anyone was.
For the first time, fear eclipsed anger.
Not because I trusted Brooke.
But because whatever she had discovered had frightened her enough to call me.
The police treated her as a missing adult, but the abandoned car changed their tone.
Mara contacted a former federal investigator named Daniel Ross.
By evening, Daniel sat at my dining table with Simon.
“You need to understand something.”
Daniel's voice was low.
“If this file really used the phrase asset acquisition target, we may be looking at more than marital financial abuse.”
“What does it sound like?”
“Selection.”
I hated the word.
Simon had found more.
The companies linked to Grant had received payments from three women besides me.
Two were former spouses of men connected socially to Ryan.
One had filed bankruptcy.
Another had disappeared from public business records after a brutal divorce.
The third had died in a car accident four years earlier.
I stared at Simon.
“You think they married women for money?”
“I think we need evidence before saying that.”
Daniel nodded.
“But patterns matter.”
Mara opened a court database.
The bankrupt woman's name was Natalie Rhodes.
Her divorce filing accused her husband of unauthorized loans, hidden transfers, and forged signatures.
The case settled privately.
Her former husband was Tyler Mason.
Ryan's college roommate.
My stomach dropped.
“I know him.”
Mara looked at me.
“He was at our wedding.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Do you have photographs?”
“Yes.”
I found the album.
Ryan.
Grant.
Tyler.
Evelyn.
All smiling beneath white roses.
Daniel studied the picture.
Then he pointed toward a man in the background.
“Who is that?”
I looked.
“That's Marcus Price.”
“Related to Evelyn?”
“Her brother.”
Daniel sat back.
“And what does he do?”
I searched my memory.
“Private wealth management.”
Nobody spoke.
My phone buzzed.
A voicemail from Ryan appeared.
I played it.
“Claire, if Brooke contacted you, do not believe everything she says.”
His voice sounded controlled.
“She's been unstable for months.”
I almost smiled at the repetition.
Unstable.
Their favorite word for inconvenient women.
Ryan continued.
“Dad didn't take her.”
Another pause.
“And neither did I.”
The message ended.
Daniel looked at me.
“He denied something you never accused him of.”
My blood turned cold.
Mara's phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then handed it to Daniel.
He listened without speaking.
When the call ended, he looked at me.
“Brooke used her credit card twenty minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“A gas station outside Colorado Springs.”
Relief surged through me.
Then Daniel continued.
“The security camera shows her buying water.”
“She's safe?”
“Not exactly.”
He rotated his laptop.
The gas station image showed Brooke at the counter.
Behind her stood a man in a black coat.
His hand rested against the middle of her back.
May you like
I recognized him immediately.
Marcus Price.
