Chapter 3: Secrets in the Walls
The drive back to the McLean house felt surreal. For the past eleven days, Laura had walked the hardwood floors of her home feeling like a ghost, waiting to be evicted. Now, the keys in her hand felt like a weapon.
The first thing she did upon arriving was call a 24-hour locksmith. By 3:00 PM, every lock on the front, back, and side doors had been replaced. The garage code was changed. The security cameras were reset to a master password Julian didn't know.
"Mommy, are we safe now?" Maya asked from the kitchen island, swinging her legs as she ate a bowl of macaroni and cheese.
Laura walked over and brushed a stray curl from Maya’s forehead. "We are very safe, sweetie. Nobody is coming in here without our permission ever again."
While Maya watched cartoons in the living room, Laura marched upstairs to Julian’s home office. The room had always been strictly off-limits. Julian claimed it was because his financial consulting work required extreme confidentiality, but Laura now knew it was just another boundary he used to control her.
She opened the heavy oak door. The room smelled of his expensive cologne and stale coffee.
If Julian was careless enough to brag about his crimes in his own kitchen, what else was he careless about?
Laura began opening drawers. Most were locked, but a quick trip to the garage for a flathead screwdriver solved that. She pried open the bottom drawer of his mahogany desk. Inside were standard files—tax returns, utility bills, mortgage statements.
But behind the hanging folders, pushed all the way to the back, was a false panel. Laura’s fingers brushed against the edge of a heavy, leather-bound ledger. She pulled it out, her heart hammering against her ribs.
She opened it. It wasn't a diary. It was a secondary set of books for Julian's consulting firm.
Laura had a degree in accounting—a career Julian had forced her to abandon when she got pregnant. As she scanned the columns of numbers, her professional instincts kicked in. Julian wasn't just hiding marital assets. He was moving massive amounts of money through shell companies in the Cayman Islands. He was embezzling from his own clients.
"Oh, Julian," Laura whispered to the empty room, a dangerous smile spreading across her lips. "You didn't just dig a grave. You built a cemetery."
Suddenly, her cell phone buzzed. It was an unknown number. She let it go to voicemail, but immediately received a text.
LAURA. IT'S CHLOE. PLEASE DON'T BLOCK ME. HE'S OUT OF CONTROL. I NEED TO TALK TO YOU.
Laura stared at the screen. The mistress was panicking. Julian was likely taking his courtroom humiliation out on her. A wave of vindictive satisfaction washed over Laura, but she quickly pushed it down. She needed to be smart. Chloe was a liability to Julian, which meant she could be a massive asset to Laura.
She didn't reply. Let Chloe sweat. Let Julian unravel.
May you like
Laura took out her phone and began photographing every single page of the ledger. She uploaded the photos to a secure cloud server she had created under a fake name the night before. If Julian sent someone to the house to retrieve this book, they’d be too late. The evidence was already immortalized.
The war hadn't just started; Laura had just acquired the nuclear codes.
