Chapter 2
The message contained only six words.
I know what they did to you.
I stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
Call me before you go inside.
The name at the top made my hands go cold.
Marcus Hale.
Derek's older brother.
The man everyone in the Mercer family had told me never to contact.
According to Linda, Marcus had abandoned his family.
According to Derek, Marcus was dangerous.
According to every story I had heard during three years of marriage, Marcus had stolen money from his father's company and disappeared.
I had never met him.
Not properly.
He had attended our wedding ceremony for exactly seventeen minutes.
Then he left.
Linda had spent the next week telling everyone he had embarrassed the family.
I had never questioned it.
Until six months ago.
I pressed call.
He answered immediately.
“Emily?”
“Yes.”
“You have the folder?”
I looked at it.
“Yes.”
“Then you're finally ready.”
My throat tightened.
“Ready for what?”
“To stop letting them pretend the house belongs to them.”
I looked through the windshield.
“Who are you?”
There was silence.
Then Marcus said:
“I'm the person who bought it.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“The house. Your house.”
My fingers tightened around the folder.
“That isn't possible.”
“It is.”
“Derek owns it.”
“No.”
“Linda owns it.”
“No.”
“Then who does?”
Marcus exhaled.
“Your father.”
I froze.
“My father has been dead for eleven years.”
“I know.”
“Then explain.”
“I will.”
He paused.
“But not over the phone.”
I glanced toward the house.
Through the kitchen window, I could see Linda moving around.
She was probably preparing to tell the guests that everything was under control.
Derek was standing near the refrigerator.
He looked toward the window.
Our eyes almost met.
I ducked down.
Marcus's voice came through the phone.
“Emily, six months ago you discovered the house wasn't legally owned by the Mercers.”
“Yes.”
“You also discovered that your father's trust purchased it before he died.”
“Yes.”
“And you found the amended deed.”
I looked at the folder.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“What I didn't understand,” I whispered, “was why my father would buy a house for Linda.”
“He didn't.”
“Then why?”
“Because he wasn't buying it for Linda.”
I waited.
“He was protecting you.”
My heart pounded.
“From what?”
Marcus answered quietly.
“From your husband.”
I closed my eyes.
“Derek?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn't make sense.”
“It will.”
He gave me an address.
“Come alone.”
“I can't leave. Linda expects me back.”
Marcus laughed softly.
“Emily, after what Derek just did to you, you're still worried about disappointing his mother?”
I looked at the house.
“No.”
“Good.”
He hung up.
I opened the folder.
The first document was the deed.
The second was my father's trust.
The third was a letter.
I had read it dozens of times.
But I had never noticed the handwritten note in the corner.
Do not trust Derek with the original.
Underneath it was another line.
If Emily ever learns why, give her the second folder.
My heart stopped.
Second folder?
I searched through the papers.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the small metal box hidden beneath the spare tire in my trunk.
I opened it.
Inside was a second folder.
And on the cover were three words.
FOR EMILY — 2021.
May you like
I checked the date.
2021 was the year I married Derek.
