Chapter 4 - THE OTHER WOMAN
Three days later, a woman named Vanessa Reed asked to see me.
I assumed she was a detective.
She wasn't.
She was Caleb’s girlfriend.
For eighteen months.
I laughed when she told me.
Not because it was funny.
Because apparently my life had reached a point where adultery felt like the least shocking revelation available.
Vanessa cried.
“I didn't know about the accident.”
“You knew he was married.”
“Yes.”
“Then forgive me if I'm not interested in making you feel better.”
She accepted that.
Then she placed her phone on my blanket.
Messages.
Hundreds.
Caleb complained about me constantly.
Rebecca refuses to sell the house.
Rebecca is useless.
Rebecca costs me a fortune.
Rebecca will never give me a divorce because she'll take everything.
Then, two months before my crash:
Soon I won't have to worry about her anymore.
My skin went cold.
Vanessa whispered:
“I thought he meant divorce.”
Then she showed me the final message.
Sent forty minutes after my crash.
It didn't work the way it was supposed to.
I looked at Detective Ortiz.
She immediately photographed the screen.
“Vanessa,” she said, “I need your phone.”
Vanessa nodded.
Then she looked at me.
“There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
“He's in debt.”
“How much?”
“Over six hundred thousand dollars.”
I stared at her.
“To whom?”
“Mostly loans. Investments. Gambling.”
I knew nothing about any of it.
For eleven years, Caleb had controlled our finances while telling me we couldn't afford new shoes without discussing the budget.
He had once made me return a $38 winter coat.
Meanwhile, he had lost hundreds of thousands.
May you like
Then Vanessa said:
“He told me he would have money after you died.”
