Chapter 2 - The Husband Who Never Existed
Lucas stared at the certificate until the letters blurred.
“This can’t be real.”
“It is,” Walter said. “The county seal, the witness signatures, everything.”
The groom’s name was Adrian Cole.
Lucas had heard Rachel mention an Adrian once. She had called him an obsessive college boyfriend who refused to accept that their relationship was over.
According to the document, Adrian was not an ex-boyfriend.
He was her husband.
“Why would she marry me if she was already married?”
Walter’s tired eyes moved toward the bank statements.
“Because you were useful.”
Lucas opened the first statement.
Large transfers had moved from Walter’s family trust into a company called RLC Property Management.
The initials matched Rachel Lucas Cole.
Millions had disappeared in small transactions over three years.
Lucas felt his stomach tighten.
He had spent those same years working double shifts at a machine plant because Rachel claimed her grandfather’s estate was struggling.
She had cried over unpaid taxes.
She had asked Lucas to cash out his retirement account.
He had given her everything.
Walter watched the realization settle across his face.
“She chose you because you were honest,” he said. “An honest man makes excellent camouflage.”
A car engine sounded beyond the rain.
Lucas crossed to the window.
Headlights swept across the mansion’s iron gate.
“Is that Rachel?”
“No,” Walter whispered. “She believes you’re still at work.”
A black SUV stopped near the front steps.
Two men stepped out.
Neither carried an umbrella.
One of them looked directly toward Walter’s bedroom window.
Walter’s grip tightened around Lucas’s arm.
“They’re not here to rescue me.”
The front door opened downstairs.
Lucas heard heavy footsteps enter the mansion.
Walter pointed toward the laboratory report.
“Take that first. It is the one thing Rachel cannot explain away.”
Lucas folded the document and slipped it beneath his wet jacket.
The footsteps reached the staircase.
Then a man’s voice called from the hallway.
May you like
“Mr. Lucas Bennett? Your wife sent us.”
👉 Lucas had seconds to decide whether to trust Walter—or surrender the evidence to the men Rachel had sent.
