Chapter 4 - TESSA'S SECRET
Three days later, Tessa called me.
I almost didn't answer.
Then I remembered something Elena had told me.
“Sometimes the person standing beside the liar is also being lied to.”
I answered.
“Hello?”
Tessa was crying.
“I didn't know.”
I said nothing.
“He told me you were leaving.”
I closed my eyes.
“Apparently, he told a lot of people different versions.”
“He said you were unstable.”
“I know.”
“He said the baby wasn't his.”
My stomach turned.
“What?”
“He said you were having an affair.”
That was a new lie.
A particularly cruel one.
Tessa sobbed.
“I believed him.”
“Why?”
“Because he showed me documents.”
“What documents?”
“A divorce petition.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Did you see my signature?”
“Yes.”
“Was it notarized?”
“I don't know.”
I looked toward Elena.
She was already listening.
“Where are you?”
Tessa hesitated.
“Hotel near the airport.”
“Don't go back to the house.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
“Then come here.”
Two hours later, Tessa sat across from me.
She looked completely different without the glittering dress and confident smile.
She looked young.
Scared.
Trapped.
“I thought he loved me,” she whispered.
I believed her.
Not because I trusted her.
Because I recognized the expression.
The same expression I had once seen in the mirror.
Grant had made her promises too.
He had told her the house would be hers.
That the company would be his.
That our marriage was already over.
Then Tessa handed me a flash drive.
“He gave me this.”
“What is it?”
“Everything he told me to keep secret.”
Elena plugged it into her computer.
Folders appeared.
Bank records.
Emails.
Draft contracts.
Voice recordings.
And then one file caught my attention.
PROJECT FAMILY RESET.
I opened it.
The document contained a timeline.
My pregnancy.
The divorce.
The transfer of my ownership.
The children.
The house.
And finally:
Phase Four — Custodial Removal.
My hands began shaking.
“What does that mean?”
Tessa whispered:
“He planned to take the children.”
The room went silent.
At the bottom of the document was a note.
Mother must be portrayed as emotionally unstable following childbirth.
I looked at Elena.
She was already calling someone.
“Family court attorney,” she said.
But before she could finish the call, another file opened automatically.
A photograph appeared.
It showed Grant meeting a private investigator.
And beside the photograph was a date.
Tomorrow.
Elena stared at the screen.
“He wasn't waiting for you to give birth.”
May you like
She looked at me.
“He was preparing to make his move before the baby arrived.”
