Victor would speak only through his attorney.
The first interview lasted nearly six hours.
Sarah was not present.
Mia received only information relevant to Sarah's case, and even that arrived slowly because investigators were sorting possible crimes from divorce evidence.
The hard drive contained surveillance reports.
Financial spreadsheets.
Photographs.
Recorded calls.
Copies of Sarah's emails.
Medical information.
And payment records.
Mia came to the secured residence carrying a printed chart.
Sarah looked at it.
"What's that?"
"Money paid to Victor."
"From Derek?"
"Some."
Mia placed the page on the table.
Several transfers came from accounts connected to Derek.
Others came from an entity Sarah did not recognize.
Ross Consulting Services.
Emily, sitting across the room, froze.
Sarah noticed immediately.
"Ross?"
Emily's surname was Ross.
Mia looked toward her.
"Do you know the company?"
Emily stood slowly.
"No."
Sarah's chest tightened.
"Emily?"
"I don't."
Mia turned the document.
"Payments originated from an account opened using identifying information belonging to someone named Emily Ross."
Nobody moved.
Emily's face drained.
"That's impossible."
"Did you open a business account three years ago?"
"No."
"Have you ever operated a company called Ross Consulting Services?"
"No."
Sarah stared at her sister.
Emily's shock looked genuine.
But Sarah had learned the danger of trusting appearances.
Emily saw it.
"Oh, come on."
Sarah flinched.
Emily's anger vanished.
"I'm sorry."
Mia said, "We don't believe Emily created the account."
Sarah looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because the opening documents contain a forged signature."
Emily sat again.
"Someone stole my identity."
"It appears so."
"Who?"
Mia turned another page.
The account's mailing address had initially been a private mailbox.
Later, statements were redirected.
The forwarding address belonged to Margaret Collins.
Sarah stared.
"Derek's mother."
Emily whispered, "You've got to be kidding me."
Mia did not smile.
"Margaret appears repeatedly."
Sarah thought of the morning after Derek left.
Margaret arriving with trash bags.
Telling Sarah she had no right to the house.
Speaking as if the outcome had already been decided.
"She knew."
"At minimum, she knew more than she admitted."
The hard drive contained recorded conversations between Derek and Margaret.
Victor had apparently recorded clients as insurance.
Mia played one.
Margaret's voice filled the room.
"Sarah will fight if Emily gets involved."
Derek answered, "That's handled."
"How?"
"Victor has enough on Emily to make her careful."
Sarah looked at her sister.
Emily's face hardened.
Margaret continued.
"And the house?"
Derek said, "Once Sarah thinks the pregnancy proves she cheated, she'll sign."
Margaret laughed softly.
"She always apologizes when she's frightened."
Sarah felt something inside her go still.
Margaret had known her for fourteen years.
She had watched Sarah care for her after surgery.
Sarah had cooked meals, changed dressings, driven her to appointments.
Margaret had studied her too.
Not with affection.
With usefulness.
Emily reached across the table.
Sarah did not take her hand.
Not yet.
She needed to hear everything.
Another recording.
Margaret said, "What if the baby is yours?"
Derek answered, "Then we dispute timing until the settlement is done."
Sarah's eyes closed.
There had never been uncertainty.
Derek knew biological fatherhood remained possible.
His mother knew too.
The accusation was simply a clock.
Delay truth.
Obtain signature.
Take assets.
Leave.
Mia stopped the audio.
Sarah whispered, "How much did Margaret pay Victor?"
"Approximately thirty-eight thousand dollars through the account created in Emily's identity."
Emily stared.
"Why use me?"
"Because if discovered, it could create suspicion between you and Sarah."
Sarah looked at her sister.
It almost had.
For one second, seeing Ross Consulting Services had made doubt enter the room.
Derek understood that suspicion did not need to be convincing for long.
It merely needed somewhere to begin.
"What did Victor do for Margaret?"
Mia turned another page.
"Mostly surveillance."
"Of me?"
"You. Emily. Derek's business associates."
"Why his associates?"
"That's where this expands."
Sarah sighed.
"Of course it does."
Derek had been diverting company funds.
Not enormous amounts at first.
Travel reimbursements.
Entertainment expenses.
Vendor payments.
Then larger transfers disguised through consulting invoices.
Victor helped identify employees who might notice.
Margaret helped move money.
Jessica's corporate access helped Derek submit or approve certain expenses.
Sarah looked up.
"Jessica knew about that too?"
"Victor says yes."
The betrayal had become almost tedious in its repetition.
Jessica knew enough.
Jessica helped with pieces.
Jessica later became frightened.
Sarah no longer cared which version allowed Jessica to sleep best.
"What did Derek need the divorce for?"
Mia answered.
"Money."
Sarah frowned.
"He already moved our savings."
"The house was worth considerably more."
Sarah knew that.
They had purchased before prices rose.
The equity was substantial.
"Derek needed liquidity," Mia continued. "He had losses."
"What kind?"
"Investments. Speculation."
"How much?"
"Potentially hundreds of thousands."
Sarah stared.
Derek had always criticized unnecessary spending.
He questioned restaurant bills.
He complained when Sarah bought expensive shoes.
He told her financial security required discipline.
Meanwhile he had been losing money she did not know existed.
Mia continued.
"The corporate investigation may reveal more."
Sarah looked at the payment chart.
"So he wanted my share of the house."
"Yes."
"And the fake vasectomy helped him create an infidelity claim."
"Yes."
"And Margaret helped."
"Yes."
Sarah laughed quietly.
Emily watched her.
"You okay?"
"No."
It was the easiest answer Sarah had given in weeks.
Victor's attorney provided another recording.
This one was recent.
Derek and Victor arguing.
Derek accused Victor of keeping too many records.
Victor replied that records prevented clients from becoming liars.
Derek said, "You work for me."
Victor answered, "Your mother pays better."
Sarah looked at Mia.
Margaret was not merely helping Derek.
She had her own relationship with Victor.
The recording continued.
Derek demanded Victor recover the pregnancy file.
Victor refused.
Then Derek said something unexpected.
"If Sarah finds out what happened the first time, she'll destroy both of us."
Victor answered, "That was your decision."
Derek: "You supplied it."
Victor: "I supplied what you requested. I didn't put it in her food."
Sarah's skin went cold.
Mia stopped the recording.
"That matters."
"It proves Derek did it."
"It strongly supports it."
Sarah stared at the silent speaker.
"Victor knew."
"Yes."
"And kept working for him."
"Yes."
"Why is he cooperating now?"
"Because Derek tried to blame him for everything."
Sarah almost smiled.
Derek's great weakness was becoming clear.
He believed loyalty could be purchased indefinitely.
But purchased loyalty ended when the payment or protection ended.
Victor had records.
Aaron had recordings.
Jessica had information.
Every person Derek recruited had eventually understood the same thing.
When necessary, Derek would sacrifice them.
"What happened with my first pregnancy?" Sarah asked.
Mia hesitated.
"We're still establishing that."
"You know something."
"I know Victor claims he didn't know you were pregnant until after the hCG result."
Sarah frowned.
"Then the medication wasn't intended to end a pregnancy."
"According to him, no."
"But it may have contributed."
"We don't know."
Sarah appreciated the precision even though she hated it.
"Did Derek know?"
"Victor says Derek learned about the positive result before you did."
Sarah's eyes burned.
"Through the clinic."
"Yes."
"And he chose not to tell me."
"Yes."
"What happened next?"
Mia looked at the report.
"Derek contacted Victor."
Sarah waited.
"He asked whether increasing the medication would guarantee a loss."
Emily whispered, "No."
Sarah felt nothing at first.
No anger.
No grief.
Only emptiness.
"What did Victor say?"
"That he wasn't a doctor and wouldn't answer."
"Did Derek increase it?"
"We don't know."
Sarah looked toward the window.
Her reflection stared back.
A woman carrying twins.
A woman who had once been pregnant without knowing it.
A woman whose husband had apparently considered whether to make that pregnancy disappear.
"Where is Derek?"
"No confirmed location."
"What does Margaret say?"
"She denies everything."
Sarah almost laughed.
"Naturally."
Mia's phone buzzed.
She checked it.
Then looked up.
"Police are at Margaret's house."
Sarah's pulse quickened.
"Why?"
"Search warrant."
"What are they looking for?"
"Financial records and anything connected to Victor."
The search lasted into the evening.
Investigators removed computers, phones, paper files and a locked safe.
Inside the safe were property documents.
Cash.
Copies of Sarah's medical records.
And letters.
Not emails.
Letters Derek had written to Margaret over several years.
One was dated shortly after Sarah's early pregnancy loss.
Mia was not initially permitted to provide the original, but investigators allowed relevant portions to be disclosed.
Derek wrote that the situation had frightened him.
He said Sarah becoming a mother would make her stronger.
He said she would stop centering him.
Sarah read the sentence several times.
Not money.
Not inconvenience.
Not even fatherhood.
He feared losing centrality.
Emily sat beside her.
"That's why."
Sarah nodded.
For years she had asked why Derek could be tender one day and cruel the next.
Why her independence offended him.
Why her closeness to Emily bothered him.
Why returning to work became an argument.
Why pregnancy transformed him from husband to prosecutor in minutes.
The answer was not complicated.
Derek wanted to be necessary.
A child might teach Sarah she could love something without his permission.
Mia turned to the final disclosed paragraph.
Sarah read it.
If it happens again, I need a permanent solution.
Her hands went cold.
The letter was three years old.
Before the supposed vasectomy.
Before Jessica.
Before the current pregnancy.
Sarah looked up.
"What permanent solution?"
Mia's face was grim.
"We don't know."
Then Emily's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed almost immediately.
"What?"
Sarah stood.
Emily listened.
Then lowered the phone.
"Lily's father just picked her up from school."
Sarah frowned.
"I thought she wasn't attending."
"She wasn't supposed to."
Emily's face had gone white.
"He got a call saying I authorized her return."
Mia stood.
"Where is Lily now?"
"With him."
"Good."
Emily shook her head.
"That's not the problem."
"What is?"
"The school said a man came asking for her twenty minutes earlier."
Sarah felt the room freeze.
Emily continued.
"He said he was her uncle."
Sarah already knew before Emily spoke the name.
"He signed in as Derek Collins."
Click here to continue reading: PART 12: Derek Used Lily to Draw Us Out, but the Message He Left Behind Revealed He Was Running From a Secret Bigger Than Divorce
Two Pink Lines Should Have Saved Our Marriage, but Derek Looked at Them and Decided They Proved I Had Betrayed Him
Part 11 of 20
