Chapter 3 - The Hidden Safe
I slammed my foot on the accelerator and sped out of the parking garage.
The tires squealed loudly against the concrete as I merged onto the dark highway.
If Jack had taken out a secret life insurance policy on me, the physical documents had to be somewhere in our house.
I needed to find his hidden leverage before he managed to leave the airport and return home.
I pushed my SUV to eighty miles per hour, weaving dangerously through the sparse evening traffic.
I pulled into our quiet suburban driveway twenty minutes later.
The house was completely dark and hauntingly silent.
I unlocked the front door and stepped into the beautiful home I had spent a decade decorating.
Everything looked perfectly normal on the surface.
Family portraits lined the hallway walls, mocking me with their fake, frozen smiles.
I ignored the living room and marched straight up the stairs to Jack's private study.
Jack always told me he kept the study locked because it contained confidential patient files.
I used a simple hairpin to pick the cheap brass lock in less than ten seconds.
I stepped inside and turned on my small tactical flashlight.
The room smelled heavily of his expensive cologne and old leather.
I knew exactly where to look for a hidden safe.
Men like Jack were hopelessly predictable and always thought they were much smarter than they actually were.
I pulled back the heavy Persian rug covering the center of the hardwood floor.
I tapped the wooden floorboards with the handle of my flashlight until I heard a distinct, hollow sound.
I pried the loose floorboard up with a letter opener from his desk.
A heavy steel biometric safe was embedded deeply into the foundation of the house.
It required a fingerprint to open.
I smiled, remembering the time Jack had passed out drunk on the couch last Christmas.
I had used a piece of specialized putty to lift a perfect mold of his right thumb purely out of old paranoid habits.
I walked to my bedroom closet, retrieved the silicone thumbprint from a hidden box, and walked back to the study.
I pressed the fake thumb against the glowing green scanner.
The heavy steel door clicked and swung open immediately.
I reached inside and pulled out a thick stack of manila folders.
The first folder contained four fake passports.
One for Jack, one for Chloe, and two for my innocent children.
They were completely prepared to flee the country and vanish without a trace.
I opened the second folder and found exactly what I was dreading.
It was a ten-million-dollar life insurance policy taken out in my name.
The policy had been quietly finalized and signed just yesterday afternoon.
I looked closely at the signature line on the final page.
It was my exact signature, forged with absolute, terrifying perfection.
I flipped to the beneficiary page to see how the money was going to be split.
Jack was not listed as the primary beneficiary.
The sole recipient of the ten million dollars was his mother, Carol.
I felt a sickening twist in my stomach as the entire conspiracy finally made perfect sense.
Jack could not collect the money himself if he was planning to fake his own disappearance with Chloe.
Carol was the anchor who would collect the massive payout and quietly funnel the money to them overseas.
I pulled out my phone and took high-resolution photographs of every single document.
Suddenly, I heard the distinct sound of a key turning slowly in the front door downstairs.
I turned off my flashlight and froze in the absolute darkness.
Someone had just entered the house, and I knew it was not Jack.
I heard the sharp click of high heels walking slowly across the hardwood floor of the foyer.
A woman's voice echoed up the staircase, dripping with venomous confidence.
May you like
"Megan, I know you are up there," Carol yelled into the dark house.
"Come downstairs right now, because we need to talk about your unfortunate accident."
