Chapter 11 - THE FIRST WIFE
Brandon told me Rebecca Sloan had cheated on him.
That was the story I had believed for thirteen years.
He said she emptied their savings, disappeared with another man, and left him to rebuild his life from nothing.
Gertrude called her "that parasite" whenever her name came up.
Hailey once told me Rebecca had been jealous of the Mercer family's closeness.
I had never met her.
I had never tried.
Now I searched her name at midnight from a hotel room while my daughter slept ten feet away.
Rebecca Sloan was a physical therapist in Temecula.
Her clinic website had a contact form.
I wrote three sentences.
My name is Charlotte Mercer.
I am married to Brandon Mercer.
I believe his family has used my identity for financial fraud, and your name appeared in evidence connected to Gertrude.
I stared at the message before pressing send.
Then I added one more sentence.
If contacting you is unwelcome, I will not contact you again.
I submitted it.
Rebecca replied at 6:03 the next morning.
CALL ME BEFORE YOU TALK TO BRANDON ABOUT ME.
A phone number followed.
I called from Dana's office.
Rebecca answered immediately.
Her first words were not hello.
"Is there a child?"
I looked at Dana.
"Yes."
"How old?"
"Eleven."
Rebecca went quiet.
"Is Gertrude living with you?"
"Yes."
"And Hailey?"
"For almost a year."
I heard Rebecca exhale slowly.
"Then you need to get your daughter away from them."
"She is with me."
"Good."
"Rebecca, what happened to you?"
She laughed once.
It sounded tired.
"What did they tell you?"
"That you cheated, emptied the savings, and left."
There was a long silence.
"Of course they did."
"Is it false?"
"Every part except leaving."
Dana wrote something on a legal pad and turned it toward me.
ASK IF SHE HAS COUNSEL / NDA.
I asked.
Rebecca was quiet again.
"I signed a settlement agreement in the divorce."
"Does it prevent you from talking?"
"It restricts what I can say publicly about certain financial accusations."
Dana leaned closer.
"Tell her not to breach it."
I did.
Rebecca gave a humorless laugh.
"I have spent thirteen years not breaching it."
"Then why are you talking to me?"
"Because you said there is a child."
My throat tightened.
"What did they do?"
Rebecca took a breath.
"Brandon and I were married for four years. Gertrude was in our house constantly. She knew every account we had. She knew my mother's maiden name. She knew where I kept tax records."
I closed my eyes.
The similarities were immediate.
"Then bills started showing up."
"In your name?"
"Credit cards at first. Then a personal loan."
"Did Brandon know?"
"He said it was Gertrude."
"Was it?"
"Some of it."
"What does that mean?"
Rebecca's voice hardened.
"It means Brandon cried in our bedroom and told me his mother had an addiction to spending and that we had to protect her from prosecution."
I felt sick.
"He asked you not to report it."
"He begged me."
"And you agreed?"
"For three weeks."
"What changed?"
"I found an account he opened himself."
Dana stopped writing.
"How much?"
"Twenty-seven thousand dollars."
"What did he spend it on?"
"Sports betting, cash withdrawals, and payments to a business his father was involved in."
There it was.
Brandon's father.
Again.
"Martin Keller?"
Rebecca went silent.
"How do you know that name?"
"He appeared with Gertrude on surveillance footage yesterday."
Rebecca swore under her breath.
"Then Martin is still helping her."
"Helping her do what?"
"Hide what happened to the estate."
I looked at Dana.
"Tell me."
Rebecca hesitated.
"Gertrude's husband, Raymond, had a small commercial property business with Martin. It looked successful from the outside. It wasn't."
"Why?"
"They borrowed against properties to cover losses. Brandon started betting through private groups. Raymond bailed him out more than once. Gertrude spent like the money could never end."
"And Hailey?"
"Hailey was young then. She mostly did what Gertrude told her."
"What happened to the estate?"
"Raymond found out money was missing from one of the business accounts."
"Who took it?"
"I don't know for certain."
"Who did you suspect?"
"Brandon and Gertrude."
The room felt colder.
"Did Raymond know?"
"He was going to confront them."
"Did he?"
"He had a stroke before he could finish sorting the records."
I said nothing.
"He died five months later."
"Gertrude said medical bills consumed the estate."
"Some did."
"And the rest?"
"That is what everyone fought about."
Rebecca's voice lowered.
"Raymond kept a red accounting ledger."
I stood so quickly my chair rolled backward.
Dana looked up.
"You saw it?"
"Yes."
"What was in it?"
"Personal loans. Business transfers. Money he gave Brandon. Money Gertrude took. Amounts Martin owed or was owed. Notes about missing funds."
"My name could not have been in it thirteen years ago."
"No."
"Derek said my name was not the first one."
Rebecca was quiet.
"Maybe Gertrude kept using it."
"Why would she?"
"Because that ledger was the one record Raymond trusted. He wrote everything by hand."
"Did your name appear in it?"
Another silence.
"Yes."
My mouth went dry.
"For what?"
"A fifty-thousand-dollar loan opened in my identity."
I gripped the edge of the desk.
"They did the same thing to you."
"Not exactly the same."
"How is this not the same?"
"Because I caught them before they used real estate."
My chest tightened.
"What happened after you caught them?"
"Brandon told everyone I was unstable."
I looked at Dana.
Rebecca continued.
"Gertrude told my employer I was stealing medication from patients."
I closed my eyes.
My work accusation.
Same tactic.
"Was it true?"
"No. The clinic cleared me."
"Then what?"
"Brandon called police and said I stole family property when I moved out."
I felt nauseated.
The report against me.
Same tactic.
"Then he accused me of keeping him from our dog."
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
"We didn't have children, so the dog was the only leverage he had."
"How did the divorce end?"
"Gertrude offered a deal."
"What deal?"
"They would take responsibility for certain debts and stop contacting my employer if I gave up my claim to part of the marital property and signed confidentiality terms."
"You paid to get away."
"Exactly."
Gertrude's pantry comment made sense now.
Rebecca paid for keeping quiet once.
Not a bribe.
Extortion disguised as settlement.
"Do you have records?"
"Some."
"Anything with the red ledger?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"One photograph."
"You have a picture of it?"
"One page. Raymond showed it to me before his stroke because he thought Brandon was hiding gambling losses. I took a picture because I was scared."
Dana motioned for me to slow down.
"Rebecca, please do not send anything if your agreement prohibits it."
"My lawyer will review it."
"Thank you."
Rebecca paused.
"Charlotte?"
"Yes?"
"There is something you need to understand about Brandon."
I waited.
"When he is caught, he becomes very gentle."
I thought of his voice message to Skylar.
Patient.
Tired.
Loving.
"He will cry."
"He already has not."
"He will."
"Then what?"
"He will tell you Gertrude controlled him."
My stomach twisted.
"Was that what he told you?"
"Yes."
"Was it true?"
Rebecca took a long breath.
"Gertrude is controlling."
"That was not my question."
"No."
Her answer was firm.
"Brandon is not her victim when the lie benefits him."
That sentence stayed with me long after the call ended.
Two hours later, Rebecca's attorney sent Dana a legally cleared copy of the photograph.
It showed an old red ledger open on a kitchen table.
The page was dated fourteen years earlier.
There were columns of names and amounts.
REBECCA - 50,000.
BRANDON - 73,500.
GERTRUDE HOUSEHOLD - 41,200.
MARTIN - 214,000.
At the bottom, Raymond Mercer had written a note in block letters.
NO MORE FAMILY LOANS UNTIL MISSING 96K EXPLAINED.
Ninety-six thousand.
The exact amount of the first construction draw they had tried to release through Derek.
I stared at the number.
"Coincidence?"
Dana shook her head slowly.
"Maybe not."
My phone buzzed.
A message from Brandon.
"We need to talk without lawyers. I am ready to tell you what Mom did."
Rebecca had predicted it almost word for word.
I took a screenshot.
Then I replied with the only sentence Dana approved.
"Communicate through counsel."
May you like
Brandon answered thirty seconds later.
"Then when this destroys Skylar too, remember you chose war."
