Chapter 4 - THE JOB DEREK NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT
I stared at Dominic.
“Working for you?”
He nodded.
“Eight years ago.”
Derek had told me he met my father through a real estate partnership.
That had always sounded ordinary.
Now I wasn't sure anything about my marriage had been ordinary.
“What did Derek do for you?”
Dominic looked toward the photograph.
“He helped investigate a group moving fraudulent property titles through Chicago.”
“Why?”
“Because your father believed the group was using his companies to hide ownership.”
I looked at Mom.
She nodded slowly.
“He asked Derek to help.”
“So Derek worked with my father and Dominic.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Dad warn me about him?”
Dominic answered.
“Because Derek started making decisions without telling us.”
“What decisions?”
“Moving money.”
My stomach tightened.
“The Moretti account.”
“Yes.”
“Why was my husband's name on it?”
“He created it.”
“Without your permission?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you stop him?”
“We tried.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“Your father planned to expose him.”
I thought of the note.
Then the final year of Dad's life.
The arguments.
The sudden business trips.
The night he came home with a split lip.
The way Mom told me not to ask questions.
I had been twenty-six.
I had thought adults were supposed to explain things eventually.
They never did.
“Did Derek hurt my father?”
Dominic stared at me.
“I don't know.”
That answer frightened me more than certainty would have.
“What happened the night Dad died?”
Mom's eyes filled with tears.
“He called me.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he had found the missing records.”
“What records?”
“Property transfers.”
“Where were they?”
Mom looked at the brass key.
“Storage 814.”
My heart started pounding.
“Then why didn't we open it?”
“Because the unit was registered through a shell company.”
“Whose?”
“Derek's.”
I closed my eyes.
Everything was circling back to him.
The gala.
The mistress.
The threats.
The accounts.
My father's warning.
The storage unit.
The phone rang again.
Not Derek.
Vanessa.
I hesitated.
Dominic held out his hand.
“Put it on speaker.”
I answered.
“Vanessa?”
Her voice was trembling.
“Khloe, I need to talk to you.”
“Why?”
“Because Derek lied to both of us.”
Silence.
I glanced at Dominic.
“Where are you?”
“At the hotel.”
“Why?”
“I found something in his office.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
My stomach tightened.
“What photograph?”
“Your father.”
“What about him?”
“He was meeting someone two days before he died.”
“Who?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Derek.”
My breathing stopped.
“Why do you have the photograph?”
“Because Derek hid it.”
“Where?”
“In a safe.”
“What's in the safe?”
“Documents.”
“About what?”
“Your father's death.”
Mom stood.
Vanessa continued.
“I thought Derek was cheating on you. I knew about me. I thought he was going to leave you.”
My heart hurt.
“Then why help him?”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“He told me if I ever left, he'd destroy my career.”
I looked at the red mark on my arm.
Same tactic.
Different victim.
“Where are the documents?”
“I can give them to you.”
“Where?”
“St. Matthew's parking garage.”
Dominic immediately shook his head.
“No.”
I told Vanessa we would meet somewhere public instead.
She agreed.
An hour later, we met in a hotel restaurant.
Vanessa looked exhausted.
She placed a folder on the table.
Inside was a photograph.
My father.
Derek.
And one other man.
A security contractor.
Derek had his hand on the man's shoulder.
On the back was a date.
The day before my father's death.
Vanessa whispered:
“He told me your father had threatened him.”
“Did Dad?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why keep this?”
“Because Derek wanted me to believe your father was dangerous.”
I looked at the photograph.
Then I noticed something.
A watch on Derek's wrist.
A silver watch with a black face.
I had seen it before.
It belonged to my father.
I looked at Vanessa.
“Where did Derek get this?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic picked up the photograph.
His expression changed.
“This isn't the only one.”
“What do you mean?”
He turned the photograph over.
A second image was taped behind it.
A storage facility.
Unit 814.
And standing beside the door was Derek.
He wasn't alone.
Beside him was my father.
Alive.
The date was the day after my father's supposed death.
I stared.
“That date is wrong.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed to the timestamp in the corner.
“He was alive.”
Mom covered her mouth.
I felt dizzy.
“If Dad was alive the day after he supposedly died…”
May you like
Dominic looked at me.
“Then someone else died in that car.”
