Chapter 14 - Ryan's Final Lie
Ryan was waiting in the living room when I returned home.
The coffee he had brought that morning sat untouched on the counter.
He stood beside the window, his arms folded.
"Where were you?"
"With my attorney."
His jaw tightened.
"So you've decided to make this legal."
"You made it legal when you moved our daughter's savings without telling me."
"I invested our money."
"Then show me the investment documents."
He looked away.
"You're not going to understand them."
"Try me."
He laughed bitterly.
"You think a few bank statements make you an expert?"
"No. I think unexplained transfers make you responsible for answering questions."
He walked toward the kitchen.
I followed, keeping enough distance between us to feel safe.
"How long have you known about Northstar?" I asked.
"I already told you. I knew of the company."
"Did you know Richard Cole?"
Ryan didn't answer.
"Did you know my father believed someone had stolen his property?"
His face changed.
"Your father signed the deed."
"His signature may have been forged."
"That's what Daniel wants you to believe."
"Then help me prove him wrong."
Ryan slammed his hand against the counter.
I flinched.
He noticed.
For a moment, something like regret crossed his face.
Then it vanished.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm under pressure, Hannah. You have no idea what I've been dealing with."
"Tell me."
He sat down and pressed both hands against his forehead.
"Richard offered me an opportunity to invest in a property project. I was told the paperwork was legitimate. I thought the money would come back with a profit."
"How much money did you invest?"
He hesitated.
"About twenty thousand dollars."
"From where?"
"Our savings."
"Without telling me?"
"I intended to explain it after the investment paid off."
I stared at him.
"You took money from our joint account and Ella's savings to fund a business you couldn't even explain to me."
"I was trying to secure our future."
"By hiding it from your pregnant wife?"
He stood again.
"You don't understand what Richard is capable of."
"Then tell me."
Ryan paced the room.
"He said the property deal was tied to an old dispute. He said your father had signed everything and that the remaining documents were just administrative formalities."
"And you believed him?"
"I wanted to believe him."
The words sounded painfully familiar.
I thought of Diane saying the same thing about her son.
"Where is the money now?"
"Some of it went toward the property purchase. Some covered legal fees. The rest is tied up in the company."
"Which company?"
"Northstar."
I closed my eyes.
"And Kayla?"
Ryan went silent.
"Why did you send her six thousand dollars?"
He sat down slowly.
"She helped with the paperwork."
"She's a teacher's assistant, Ryan. What paperwork could she possibly have handled?"
"She knows people. She helped arrange meetings."
"Did she know the money came from our accounts?"
He didn't answer.
I waited.
Finally, he whispered, "Yes."
Something inside me broke in a way that crying couldn't repair.
Kayla hadn't merely accepted help from my husband.
She had known where the money came from.
She had helped him move it.
And then she'd stood beside me at my baby shower, smiling beneath the pink decorations while I thanked her for being my best friend.
"Did you sleep with her?" I asked.
Ryan looked up sharply.
"That isn't the point."
"Did you?"
He rubbed his face.
"It happened because things between us were complicated."
I felt suddenly cold.
"How long?"
He didn't answer.
"How long, Ryan?"
"Since August."
I stepped back.
August.
The same month Kayla had asked for money.
The same month I had sent her photographs of Ella's nursery.
The same month Ryan had kissed my forehead and promised that our daughter would never have to worry about money.
I sat down because my knees no longer felt steady.
"Did you tell her our marriage was over?"
Ryan looked ashamed.
"I told her we were struggling."
"That isn't what she told me. She said you told her I already knew."
"I thought you would eventually accept it."
"Accept what? That my husband was sleeping with my best friend while spending our child's savings on a company connected to my dead father?"
He had no answer.
For a long moment, the house was silent.
Then I said, "I want you to leave."
His head snapped up.
"Hannah—"
"You're going to stay somewhere else while my attorney reviews the finances. You will not access Ella's savings or transfer any more money without legal authorization."
"You can't throw me out of my own house."
"I'm not making a final decision about the house. I'm asking you to leave while we sort this out safely and legally."
He stared at me as though the woman sitting across from him were a stranger.
Perhaps she was.
The woman who had trusted him blindly was gone.
Ryan picked up his keys.
At the doorway, he turned back.
"You think Daniel is going to save you? He couldn't save your father."
I looked at him.
"No. But I can stop letting you destroy what he left behind."
Ryan walked out.
For the first time in weeks, I could breathe without waiting for him to tell me what I was allowed to feel.
But the relief didn't last.
My phone rang.
It was my attorney.
"Hannah, I've reviewed the preliminary property records. There's something you need to know about the company that owns Northstar."
"What?"
"The current registered agent is Richard Cole's son."
I gripped the phone.
"Who is his son?"
My attorney paused.
"His name is Andrew Cole. According to the public records, he has been working with Ryan on the property transactions."
I knew that name.
Andrew Cole had attended our wedding.
He had stood beside Ryan as his best man.
And when I searched my wedding photographs later that evening, I found him in nearly every picture.
Smiling.
May you like
Watching.
As though he had known all along that my marriage was built around a secret I had never been allowed to see.
