Chapter 4 - SARAH’S INSURANCE POLICY
I stared at the blue folder for nearly a minute before touching it.
Sarah had been inside my house.
Or she had somehow arranged for someone to place it there.
Either possibility frightened me.
I opened the folder.
The first page contained a handwritten message.
If anything happens to me, give everything in this folder to the police.
My name was written beneath it.
I immediately called Detective Alvarez.
He arrived thirty-five minutes later with another investigator.
Emily slept through everything.
I placed the folder on my dining room table.
Alvarez put on gloves before opening it.
Inside were printed bank records.
Photographs.
Copies of identification cards.
Property transfers.
Emails.
A handwritten timeline.
And a flash drive.
Sarah had been investigating Jason.
According to her notes, it had started four months earlier when she discovered a credit card opened in her name.
She confronted Jason.
He claimed it was a banking mistake.
Then she discovered another account.
Then a loan.
Then a life insurance policy she had never approved.
That frightened her enough to begin searching his office.
The deeper she looked, the worse things became.
Jason had multiple identities.
He had used different names in three states.
He appeared to have married another woman years before meeting Sarah.
There was no record of a divorce.
Sarah had even found a photograph of him standing beside another family.
Emily’s stepfather had been living a life built on lies.
One handwritten page contained three words circled repeatedly.
Financial exploitation.
Identity fraud.
Disappearances.
I looked at Alvarez.
“What does that mean?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Disappearances?”
He nodded toward the records.
“Sarah wrote that two women associated with Jason’s previous identities suddenly moved away and became impossible to contact.”
My stomach turned.
“Are they alive?”
“We’re checking.”
I looked toward Emily’s bedroom.
Alvarez continued examining the folder.
Near the bottom was an envelope marked FOR MARK.
That was my first name.
I opened it.
Sarah’s handwriting covered two pages.
Mark,
I know we have not been good at trusting each other since the divorce.
I know we have both said things we regret.
But I need you to believe me now.
Something is wrong with Jason.
I think he has been using my accounts.
I think he married me because of the house and insurance.
I also think Emily knows more than she is telling me.
She is afraid of him.
I should have seen it sooner.
That sentence hit harder than anything else.
Sarah had noticed too.
The silence.
The fear.
The extra nights Emily wanted with me.
We had both seen pieces of the truth.
Neither of us had understood how serious they were.
The letter continued.
If you are reading this, I may not be able to protect her myself.
Please protect Emily first.
Then find me.
I folded the letter carefully.
Alvarez looked at me.
“When did Sarah put this here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does she have a key to your house?”
“No.”
Then I remembered.
Emily did.
For emergencies.
I slowly turned toward her bedroom.
May you like
Sarah had not hidden the folder in my house.
Emily had.
