Chapter 7 - The Woman Waiting in Seattle
Daniel arrived shortly before sunset.
He was in his early fifties, silver-haired, precise, and rarely surprised. Yet even he paused when he read Blake’s messages.
“Your father prepared for financial coercion,” he said. “He did not anticipate conspiracy involving a third party.”
“Could Marissa have accessed the trust?”
“Not without help.”
Blake scoffed. “You’re making her sound like a criminal mastermind.”
Daniel turned to him.
“She knew the trust’s abandonment provision, the occupancy period, and the location of sealed originals. Those facts were confidential.”
Patricia sank onto the edge of a chair.
“I want an attorney.”
The deputy nodded. “That is your right.”
Daniel asked me to retrieve every shared device in the house. Blake had wiped his laptop, but cloud backups remained active.
In an archived folder, Daniel found a draft separation agreement.
It stated that I had voluntarily abandoned Emma and the family residence because of an “emotional breakdown.”
My hands began to shake.
Blake had planned to portray me as unstable.
Worse, the agreement requested temporary sole custody of Emma.
“You were going to take my daughter.”
Blake stood.
“I would never hurt Emma.”
“You told her to sleep on an air mattress while your mother took her home.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It is exactly the same thing.”
A new message appeared on Blake’s phone.
Marissa:
Did she leave yet? The evaluator is ready for tomorrow.
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“What evaluator?”
The deputy traced the number.
It belonged to a private family-court consultant who had previously been disciplined for submitting misleading custody assessments.
Marissa was not waiting for the plan to succeed.
She had already prepared the next attack.
Daniel advised me not to respond from Blake’s phone.
Instead, I used my own.
I wrote:
This is Claire. Come to the house and explain everything.
The message showed “read.”
A minute later, Marissa replied.
May you like
You have no idea who your husband really works for.
👉 The mistress Claire expected to hate was suddenly claiming that Blake answered to someone even more dangerous.
