Chapter 2 - THE FIRST WIFE
Her name was Anna Reed.
She had married Marcus six years before he met Rachel.
The marriage was never legally dissolved.
Marcus told Anna he was an unmarried consultant working outside the country. He told Rachel he had never been married. He told me Anna was a client who became obsessed with him.
The courthouse records told another story.
Marcus and Anna had signed a private marriage license in Nevada.
Three months later, Anna inherited three million dollars from her grandfather.
Marcus convinced her to place the money into a joint investment account connected to Arthur’s company.
Then Anna disappeared.
Marcus claimed she left him after a miscarriage.
Arthur discovered the account years later and moved it into protective custody when he realized Anna’s signature had been forged repeatedly.
The money did not belong to Marcus.
It belonged to Anna.
The photograph proved Marcus knew she was alive after the date he claimed she vanished.
Rachel tore the image in half.
The security camera caught that too.
Trust officers entered through the back door after I unlocked it.
Marcus tried to argue they were trespassing.
Attorney Shaw arrived with police and the original warrant.
The kitchen became a crime scene.
The forged power of attorney.
My injuries.
The hidden phone.
The broken camera.
The photograph.
Everything remained where it fell.
Then Shaw gave me the sealed letter from the black box.
Arthur’s handwriting covered the first page.
Evelyn,
If this letter opens, Marcus has chosen violence over truth. Do not protect him from consequences. I already did that too many times.
The next page contained Anna’s last known address.
A small town in Vermont.
Shaw said investigators had visited the house that morning.
Anna no longer lived there.
But a six-year-old girl did.
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Her birth certificate listed Marcus Carter as father.
Read Chapter 3 to learn why Marcus’s daughter had been hidden from everyone.
