Chapter 3 - THE SECRET ACCOUNT
The police took Evelyn into custody that night.
Brandon was not arrested.
Not yet.
The detectives told me they needed to investigate his involvement.
I didn't sleep.
I sat beside Nancy's hospital bed until morning.
Every few minutes, she woke up crying.
Every time, she asked the same question.
“Is Grandma coming back?”
“No.”
I promised her.
But deep inside, I knew the truth was more complicated.
The next morning, Detective Elliott arrived with a folder.
“We found something.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He placed several documents on the table.
“Your mother-in-law purchased the magnets three weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“She bought them online using a credit card registered to your husband.”
My blood went cold.
I turned toward Brandon.
He stood near the window.
“You gave her your card?”
“I didn't know what she was buying.”
The detective placed another document on the table.
“There are other purchases.”
A storage unit.
A prepaid phone.
Several money transfers.
All connected to an account I had never heard of.
“What's this?” I asked.
Brandon remained silent.
The detective looked at him.
“Mr. Carter?”
Brandon finally turned.
“It was my mother's account.”
“Why were you transferring money into it?”
He said nothing.
I stared at him.
For ten years, I had believed my husband worked hard.
He claimed his business was struggling.
He told me we needed to cut expenses.
He had even asked me to sell my grandmother's house after she died.
But now the detective opened another folder.
“Your husband has been transferring money from your joint account for almost two years.”
I looked at Brandon.
“How much?”
The detective answered.
“Approximately $184,000.”
The room became completely silent.
I laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes the truth is so enormous that the mind refuses to accept it.
“Where did the money go?”
The detective looked at Brandon.
“An account belonging to a company called Carter Family Holdings.”
My husband's company.
I turned toward him.
“You stole from me.”
“I was going to put it back.”
“When?”
He had no answer.
Then the detective placed one final document on the table.
A life insurance policy.
My name was listed as the insured.
Brandon was the beneficiary.
The policy had been purchased eight months earlier.
I stared at the document.
“Why did you take out life insurance on me?”
Brandon stepped forward.
“It was for financial protection.”
“Then why did your mother tell our daughter to swallow magnets?”
He froze.
The detective's voice hardened.
“Mr. Carter, we are now investigating whether the incident was connected to a financial motive.”
Brandon looked at me.
His face was no longer angry.
It was terrified.
That night, I received a message from an unknown number.
I almost deleted it.
Then I read the words.
YOUR HUSBAND IS NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO WANTS YOU DEAD.
A second message arrived.
CHECK THE ATTIC.
I stared at the screen.
Then I looked at Nancy sleeping peacefully.
I knew I should have called the police.
Instead, I called the detective.
He told me not to go home alone.
But before he arrived, another message appeared.
YOUR HUSBAND HAS BEEN LYING TO YOU FOR YEARS.
Then a photograph appeared.
It showed Brandon standing beside a woman I had never seen before.
His arm was around her waist.
May you like
The date was six months earlier.
The woman was pregnant.
