Chapter 6 - The Desperate Move
I thought the worst was over after the ambush at the law firm, but desperate people rarely surrender without a fight.
Three days later, I was in the living room, folding Maya's laundry, when a frantic pounding echoed from the front door.
I glanced at the security monitor.
It wasn't Bennett.
It was a woman. Tall, blonde, dressed in an oversized trench coat, looking wildly out of place on my suburban porch.
Victoria.
My heart rate spiked, but I forced myself to remain calm.
I checked to make sure the front door was deadbolted, then activated the two-way intercom.
"Can I help you?" I asked, my voice projecting out onto the porch.
Victoria jumped, looking frantically for the speaker.
"Tessa! Tessa, please open the door! We need to talk!"
Her voice wasn't arrogant or poised. It was shrill. Terrified.
"We have nothing to talk about, Victoria," I said coldly. "Leave my property before I call the police."
"He didn't tell me!" she screamed, hitting the door with her open palm. "Bennett didn't tell me where the money was coming from! He told me it was a legitimate business venture!"
I paused, my finger hovering over the button to mute her.
She was panicking. Which meant Bennett had told her about my ultimatum.
"He told me to sign the LLC papers so we could save for Leo's college!" she cried, tears streaming down her perfectly contoured face. "He said you two were legally separated! He said you didn't want children! I didn't know he was stealing! I didn't know about the baby!"
I stood there in the quiet hallway, staring at her through the screen.
Part of me wanted to believe her.
Part of me wanted to believe that another woman wouldn't knowingly inflict this kind of cruelty on a pregnant wife.
But it didn't matter.
Whether she was a willing accomplice or just another one of Bennett's naive victims, she was still holding the bag for his crimes.
I unlocked the door and pulled it open just a few inches, leaving the security chain attached.
Victoria gasped, stepping forward. "Tessa, please. You can't send those files to the police. I have a son. If I go to jail, Leo will go to foster care. Bennett is trying to flee!"
That caught my attention.
"Flee?" I repeated sharply.
"He's liquidating his legitimate retirement accounts," she whispered, looking over her shoulder as if he might appear. "He booked a flight to the Cayman Islands for tomorrow morning. He's abandoning us. Both of us. He's leaving me to take the fall for the LLC."
A cold shock washed over me.
Even now, faced with the consequences of his actions, Bennett was only looking out for himself.
He was perfectly willing to let the woman he claimed to love take the blame for his embezzlement, just as he had been willing to throw away his infant daughter.
He was a coward to his very core.
"Do you have proof?" I asked her.
She nodded frantically, shoving a manila envelope through the crack in the door. "Flight itineraries. Bank transfer requests. Please, Tessa. Stop him. But keep me out of it."
I took the envelope, feeling the heavy weight of the paper inside.
"Go home, Victoria," I said quietly.
I closed the door, locking it securely behind her.
May you like
I immediately called Miriam.
"We need to accelerate the timeline," I told my lawyer. "Bennett is making a run for it. It's time to blow the whole thing up."
