Three weeks after my husband died, I was eight months pregnant when my father walked into my kitchen with his young wife and told me I had to leave my own house. When I refused, he forced me onto the porch, and my water broke. He thought grief had made me helpless. But the moment I called my husband’s attorney, his entire plan began to collapse.

The room spun wildly as the image of the crime scene flashed on the federal agent's screen.

"That's impossible," I stammered, holding Leo close to my pounding heart.

"We just saw him at my house twenty minutes ago, he was tearing the place apart!"

Agent Harris narrowed his eyes, studying my face for any sign of deception.

"The local police received an anonymous tip, breached the compound, and found him staged to look like a suicide," Harris explained.

"But the ballistics match the registered firearm missing from your husband's bedside table."

Someone had murdered my father to tie up loose ends, and they were framing me to take the final fall.

"It was Bianca," I said, the realization hitting me like a freight train.

"She knew about the necklace, she knew about the fire, and she wants the offshore money all to herself."

"If she killed Richard, she inherits everything legally before the fraud is exposed," Samantha added, pacing the room in a panic.

Agent Harris tapped his pen against the metal table.

"I believe you, but I need hard, digital proof of Bianca's involvement with the offshore accounts to arrest her instead of you."

I reached into the back pocket of the leather binder to pull out the encrypted flash drive Nathan had stored there.

My fingers met empty air.

The small mesh pocket inside the binder was completely empty.

I dumped the binder upside down, shaking the pages frantically, but the drive was gone.

"Where is it?" Marcus asked, stepping forward to help me search the floor.

My mind flashed back to the hospital, to the moment Bianca had tossed the cheap flowers onto my bed.

She had bumped her purse against the leather bag where I had hidden the binder after emptying the safe.

She had pickpocketed the flash drive right in front of me while gloating about the car crash.

"She took it," I whispered, feeling completely defeated.

"Without that drive, she walks away with millions, and I go to prison for double homicide," I realized aloud.

Agent Harris stood up, his face grim and sympathetic.

When my newborn 'passed away,' my mother-in-law leaned in and said

My Husband Left Me Alone in My Car While I Was in Labor

“You’re Dead When We Get Home,” He Snapped

"I'm sorry, Elena, but I have to follow protocol."

"I am officially detaining you for the murders of Nathan Moore and Richard Vale."

Chapter 7 - The Stolen Flash Drive