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Ryan had returned drowning in debt after a business collapse. He owed dangerous people money. Grace had been giving him cash, convincing herself she was protecting her daughter from his problems.
Then I reached the sentence that made my hands shake.
A week before the crash, someone left a note under my windshield wiper: Drop it. Think about your wife.
At the bottom of the page, Liam had written:
“If Mark gives you this, go to the storage unit. Check beneath the toolbox. Don’t tell Grace.”
I looked up at Mark slowly.
“Did Liam think Ryan might hurt him?”
Mark rubbed both hands across his face.
“He hoped it wouldn’t come to that,” he admitted softly. “But he was scared enough to prepare for the possibility.”
I drove home in a fog.
Through the kitchen window, I saw Grace standing at the stove making pancakes with the kids.
For a moment, I just stood there staring at her.
Then I forced myself to smile and walked inside.
“Who wants to go out for lunch?” I asked brightly.
Ava’s face lit up instantly.
“Can we get fries?”
“Yes.”
Ben looked so excited you’d think I’d offered him a puppy.
Grace frowned slightly.
“I thought I was already making—”
“I know,” I interrupted gently. “Thank you. I just need to get them out for a little while.”
Instead, I dropped the kids off with our neighbor Nina, telling her I had errands to run and might completely fall apart if anyone asked questions.
She hugged me without hesitation and took the children inside.
For illustrative purposes only
Then I drove straight to the bank.
Because my name was also attached to the children’s accounts, the manager allowed me access to the records.
Liam had frozen the accounts two days before his death.
No withdrawals without my approval.