Chapter 5 - Amber Had Known Him for Years
I stared at Amber’s nineteen-year-old face until the photograph blurred.
She was standing beside Jason like she knew him.
Because she did.
Six years before my first date with him.
Three years before Amber supposedly introduced us.
My childhood best friend had known exactly who Jason Miller was.
I finally answered her call.
She picked up before the first ring ended.
“Rachel.”
“How long?”
She started crying.
“Please let me explain.”
“How long have you known Jason?”
“Since college.”
“You told me you met him at my birthday dinner.”
“I know.”
“How long?”
“Eight years.”
My hand went numb.
Rebecca's marriage.
Amber had known him during Rebecca’s marriage.
“Were you Danielle?”
“No.”
“Don't lie to me again.”
“I’m not.”
For once, I believed the panic in her voice.
Amber said she met Jason through Linda.
At nineteen, Amber worked part-time for a small property-management office Linda used.
Jason sometimes came in.
Amber developed a crush.
Jason encouraged it enough to keep her close but never committed.
Then Rebecca entered his life.
Amber watched from the outside.
“Why were you in that photograph?”
“Linda’s company Christmas dinner.”
“Did you know what he did to Rebecca?”
“Not then.”
“When did you find out?”
Silence.
“Amber.”
“After you started dating him.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The moment forgiveness became impossible.
“You knew.”
“Not everything.”
“But enough.”
“I knew Rebecca said he stole money.”
“And you let me marry him.”
Amber sobbed.
“I believed him.”
“Why?”
“He said Rebecca was unstable. That she had gambling debt. That she forged his name first.”
Jason had rewritten his first victim into the villain.
And Amber had accepted the story because she wanted to.
“When did you start sleeping with him?”
“Seven months ago.”
Seven months.
Two months before the courthouse marriage.
I had to sit down.
“You stood beside me while I signed a marriage license knowing you were sleeping with him?”
“I tried to stop.”
“No. You didn't.”
“I told him we should tell you.”
“But you didn't.”
She cried harder.
Then she said something unexpected.
“The wedding night wasn't supposed to happen like that.”
“What was supposed to happen?”
Silence.
“Amber.”
“Jason wanted you to catch us.”
The room seemed to stop.
Naomi leaned forward.
I put the phone on speaker.
“Say that again.”
“He said we needed you angry enough to leave the house.”
My skin went cold.
“He staged it?”
“Not all of it.”
Meaning the affair was real.
But the discovery was engineered.
Amber explained that Jason originally planned for me to catch suggestive messages days after the wedding.
He wanted an explosive fight.
He wanted me to go to my parents.
Then he would claim we needed space.
Thirty days.
Maybe longer.
The wedding-night scene accelerated everything because Jason panicked over the refinance documents.
“He said the lender might call you.”
“So he needed me gone before I opened the mail.”
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
“Why did you agree?”
“He promised we would finally be together.”
I almost laughed.
The oldest lie in the world.
“And after I left?”
“He was supposed to file for divorce and sell the house.”
“Then what?”
“He said we'd move.”
“With my money?”
Amber stopped crying.
That silence was answer enough.
Naomi asked:
“Who is M?”
Amber went completely quiet.
“What?”
“The person texting Jason on the iPad. Saved as M.”
“I don't know.”
“You've never heard him mention M?”
“No.”
Then she hesitated.
“Wait.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What?”
“Jason used to meet someone every Thursday.”
“Who?”
“He never told me. But Linda called him Mr. Mercer once.”
Naomi typed the name.
Mercer.
Within minutes, we found a Marcus Mercer.
Financial consultant.
Former loan officer.
And registered agent for North Creek Residential Partners.
There it was.
M.
Not Jason.
Not Amber.
Not even Linda.
Someone else had been organizing the money.
Amber whispered:
“Rachel, Jason isn't the person you think he is.”
I looked at the photograph of him with Rebecca.
“I figured that out.”
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“I mean Jason isn't even his real first name.”
My stomach turned.
“What is?”
Amber whispered:
May you like
“Andrew.”
And according to her, Jason Miller had built more than one life under more than one name.
