Chapter 5 - The Safe Was Already Open
I didn't go back to the penthouse.
Every instinct wanted me to storm through the front door and demand the contents of my safe.
Instead, Evelyn arranged for counsel to request access, and Mara coordinated what could be preserved for the investigation.
I had no intention of giving Ryan another opportunity to trap me in a room.
The next afternoon, my attorney called from outside the building.
“Claire, the safe is open.”
My knees weakened even though I was sitting down.
“What's missing?”
“We're documenting everything before drawing conclusions.”
“Evelyn.”
“The folder containing your certified deed copy is gone.”
I looked at the wall where a cheap print of mountains hung above the sofa.
The real deed was recorded with the county, and I knew a stolen paper copy couldn't magically change ownership.
But someone had wanted the folder badly enough to open my safe.
“What else?”
“A sealed envelope marked AEGIS EQUITY.”
That envelope held copies of option grants and vesting schedules from before my marriage.
“Anything else?”
“The velvet box with your mother's jewelry is still here.”
The difference told me more than a missing diamond would have.
This was not ordinary theft.
Someone was hunting documents.
A few hours later, the building manager, Luis Ortega, provided a written incident timeline to investigators.
Ryan had requested after-hours access for a moving crew.
The crew had arrived with empty archive crates.
The visitor log named the person who signed them in.
Brooke.
I remembered her standing at my New Year's table with a phone in her hand.
Now I wondered what she had been filming.
Mara asked whether she had ever had access to our storage room.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed somewhere to keep holiday decorations.”
I closed my eyes.
For three years I had granted privileges without considering how easily they could be used against me.
At dinner, my phone received an alert about an attempt to reset the password on an old email account.
The recovery address belonged to Ryan.
My IT team preserved the notification and helped secure the account.
Buried in old messages was a calendar invitation from eight months earlier.
Ryan had created an appointment called “Family Planning Review.”
The invitees were Ryan, Grant, Brooke, and someone named Leland Marsh.
I wasn't included.
Yet the attached agenda bore my initials at the bottom of every page.
The last agenda item made my breath catch.
“Asset consolidation before birth.”
Before birth.
My baby's due date was not even on the calendar when they started planning.
Or so I had believed.
I scrolled farther down.
May you like
The invitation had been sent two weeks before I told Ryan I was pregnant.
