Chapter 2 - The Safe
I stopped the elevator on the twenty-first floor.
My entire body was shaking now that I was alone.
The burn beneath my sweater throbbed.
My wrists hurt.
My baby moved again, and fear sliced through my anger.
I called 911 first.
Then I called building security.
“Ms. Bennett?”
It was Marcus, the night supervisor.
“I need security sent to my penthouse immediately.”
“Are you safe?”
“I’m downstairs.”
“What happened?”
“My husband and his family assaulted me.”
There was a pause.
Then Marcus’s voice changed completely.
“We’re coming.”
“There’s more.”
I watched Ryan on the camera.
He had removed the framed photograph covering the safe keypad.
“He’s trying to open my private safe.”
Marcus knew exactly which safe I meant.
The building had installed it during renovations.
“I’ll lock the private elevator.”
“Do it.”
I disconnected and opened my banking application.
Most couples had joint accounts.
Ryan and I had one.
One household account.
I deposited money into it every month for shared expenses.
Ryan deposited significantly less.
Everything else remained separate because my attorney had insisted on a prenuptial agreement.
Ryan hated that agreement.
He called it insulting.
Three years later, I finally understood why.
On the camera, Brooke held up her phone.
Ryan read something.
Then he punched numbers into the safe.
The door opened.
My stomach dropped.
Only three people knew that code.
Me.
My attorney.
And Ryan.
I had changed it six months earlier.
Ryan should not have known it.
Yet there he was.
He pulled out two folders.
One contained property documents.
The other contained stock certificates, account records, insurance documents, and the emergency file for my company equity.
“Ryan.”
My voice came out as a whisper.
Brooke opened the first folder.
Grant appeared behind them.
He snatched the deed from her hands.
I could not hear every word through the camera.
Then Grant moved close enough to the microphone.
“Her name only?”
Ryan said something.
Grant exploded.
“You told me this place was yours.”
Ryan’s face turned red.
Brooke flipped through another file.
Suddenly she froze.
She handed Ryan a document.
He stared at it.
Whatever he saw changed him.
He walked directly toward the bedroom security camera.
Then he smashed it with a lamp.
The image disappeared.
Ryan thought the recording was gone.
It wasn’t.
The cloud copy had already saved.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Mrs. Bennett?”
A woman spoke quickly.
“This is Denver Police dispatch.”
“Officers are arriving now.”
The elevator opened behind me.
Marcus stepped out with two guards.
Then my phone vibrated again.
This time it was an alert from my bank.
JOINT ACCOUNT TRANSFER REQUEST.
$184,000.
Destination account: RYAN BENNETT.
I stared at the screen.
Our household account had never contained $184,000.
Which meant Ryan had moved money into it before trying to transfer it out.
I opened the transaction history.
My blood went cold.
May you like
The money had come from one of my business accounts.
And the transfer had been initiated three days earlier.
